New Polaris agreement with YouTube

October 1, 2020

A new joint Polaris agreement on the use of music on YouTube has been reached. The agreement was entered into under the auspices of the Nordic alliance of collection societies, Polaris, on behalf of Koda (Denmark), Teosto (Finland), Tono (Norway) and Stef (Iceland). The agreement enters into force on 1 October 2020.

A newly signed agreement ensures that composers, lyricists, songwriters and music publishers represented by Koda, Stef, Tono and Teosto will continue to receive royalties when their music is published, listened to and monetized on YouTube. 

The agreement
The new Polaris agreement is replacing the local agreements previously entered into by the individual countries. The agreement encompasses a range of music uses including traditional music videos and TV-style content that has music in the background and cover versions. It covers both ad-supported as well as subscription services.

Faster payment to music creators and music publishers
The new agreement differs from the previous local agreements in that it covers a much larger repertoire and that it extends beyond the national use of the individual collection societies’ repertoires. For example, the new agreement also includes the use of the four societies’ repertoires in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. This means that the four Nordic societies’ license their repertoire directly with YouTube without going through their sister societies in the countries covered by the agreement. The benefits include more control over the use of their repertoire, more efficiency, cost reductions as well as faster payment to songwriters, composers, lyricists and music publishers.

The latest in a series of new Polaris agreements
Over the past year, several agreements that were also negotiated locally in the past have become part of the new Nordic co-licensing initiatives. This includes services like SoundCloud, Facebook, Instagram, Apple Music and most recently a new  agreement with Spotify.

About the Polaris Hub
Polaris Hub is a joint venture created by the Nordic collection societies Koda (DK), Tono (NO) and Teosto (FIN). Polaris Hub acts on behalf of all three organisations when negotiating and entering into agreements with international digital music services, to provide music fans with access to the broadest catalogue of songs as well as faster distributions and lower costs for all the rightsholders represented by the three Nordic collective rights management organisations.

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