Polaris announces online hub launch & Facebook licence
Polaris, the collective music rights management initiative formed by Nordic societies Koda, Teosto and TONO, has launched the Polaris Hub, an online licensing and processing collaboration. The new hub will facilitate reporting, and revenue collection and distribution collaborating with NMP (Network Music Partners) as well as acting on behalf of Koda, Teosto and TONO in all multi-territorial online negotiations.
Based in Stockholm, Polaris Hub will be led by Åsa Carild, who prior to this appointment held roles at STIM, KSTAR and ICE. “I’m very grateful to have been given this opportunity: the established collaboration with the Polaris societies provides a very good basis for us to bring great value to the rightsholders we represent and can also benefit the music services we work with,” says Carild.
– By joining forces we aim at providing smooth access to all digital services, both local and international, who wish to include Scandinavian music in their repertoire. For our members the benefits are faster distributions and lower costs.
Gorm Arildsen, CEO, Koda
– Polaris Hub works hard on setting a new industry standard for the service level of CMOs. Collaboration helps us to be forerunners in adapting collective rights management and licensing processes to the digital age, which in turn makes it easier to answer to the needs of consumers, service providers and the European Commission’s policy objectives on the digital single market and copyright.
Risto Salminen, CEO, TEOSTO
– The Nordic repertoire is increasingly attractive to music lovers all over the world. Through the Polaris Hub, we aim to make it easier than ever for online services to offer Nordic music to their users. For us as societies, we will be able to reduce costs and distribute more money, faster, to composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers.
Cato Strøm, CEO, TONO
Nordic music creators enter into deal with Facebook
Polaris HUB – a joint venture between the Nordic collective rights management societies Koda (DK), TONO (NO) and Teosto (FIN) – has entered into a licensing agreement with Facebook. The licensing agreement also covers the repertoire of the Icelandic society Stef.
The agreement constitutes yet another important step forward in our partnership to provide Nordic rights holders with the opportunity to earn revenue from the use of their music in the digital realm.
The agreement enables music represented by the four Nordic societies to be available for users in EMEA across Facebook’s platforms, including Instagram, Oculus and Messenger.
– The Facebook licensing agreement presents an exciting opportunity for our music creator members. Our partnership demonstrates real recognition of the importance of music in everyday social connections and we are looking forward to the development of more music products on Facebook.
Åsa Carild, CEO of Polaris HUB
ABOUT POLARIS
In 2013, the Nordic collective rights management organisations Koda, Teosto and TONO formed Polaris, a ground-breaking initiative that aims to pave the way for the future of music rights management, creating higher value for music creators, reducing costs, increasing revenue and maximising efficiency. Polaris has developed a back-end system that facilitates music reporting and revenue distribution, as well forging IT investment and work database deals for all three societies.