TONO strengthens its international engagement:
TONO aims to be a driving force in the development of international copyright legislation and global cooperation in the field of rights management. TONO is therefore strengthening its international engagement by appointing Inger Elise Mey to the newly created position of Director of International Affairs.
/ 29/06/2023 / Willy MartinsenPhoto above: Caroline Roka
TONO is affected by international legal and market-related framework conditions. EU directives become Norwegian law, and the Norwegian music industry is directly impacted by trends in the international music market. TONO manages rights and cash flows across national borders, which gives its operations a highly international outlook.
TONO is now reinforcing its capacity to influence international developments through the creation of a new position: Director of International Affairs. To fill this role, TONO has appointed Inger Elise Mey, who has, until now, served as TONO’s Director of Broadcast, Online & International Licensing. TONO will recruit a new leader for this area immediately after the summer holidays.
“TONO wishes to take a clearer position as a driving force in international cooperation in the field of copyright and global cooperation in the area of rights management. Mey is a skilled copyright lawyer, with experience from key international positions over a career spanning several decades. As leader of TONO’s negotiations with broadcasters and international digital service providers, she has fought tenaciously for the interests of rights holders in the digital domain, and brings extremely valuable insights and expertise to TONO’s international endeavours. I am pleased that Inger Elise Mey has agreed to take on this new role. I have high expectations for the work she will do for TONO and for international cooperation,” says TONO’s CEO Karl Vestli.
In her new role, Mey will be responsible for promoting TONO’s engagement in international stakeholder organisations. These include CISAC, the umbrella organisation for the world’s collective rights management societies, and GESAC, which acts as the mouthpiece for the European collective rights management societies in relation to the EU.
“Mey will be an active member of working groups established by these cooperative organisations to influence the development of laws and regulations that address new technologies and a changed media landscape in ways favourable to both creators and music publishers. The role also involves contact with relevant national and international government agencies and stakeholder organisations, as well as legal and technical specialists,” says Vestli.
Inger Elise Mey has worked with copyright issues relating to new technology since she joined TONO at the beginning of 1996. She licensed the first streaming services as far back as the 1990s, negotiated with Spotify when it arrived in Norway in 2008, and with Netflix in 2012. She has also negotiated with the other music and film streaming services as they have gradually entered the Norwegian market. Mey has been TONO’s Director of Broadcast, Online & International Licensing since 2012 and has been TONO’s representative in the Madrid Group (GESAC’s group of legal experts) for more than a decade. She has also served as TONO’s representative on CISAC’s Media Technical Committee for 20 years and has chaired the committee since 2016.
“Cooperation between the world’s collective rights management societies has been a cornerstone of the global music industry for over a century. We all know that technology within the music sector has developed at lightning speed since the 1990s. It is crucial that the collective rights management societies keep a close eye on these developments, work together to create sensible solutions and influence the EU and other legislators worldwide to ensure that the holders of rights to musical works receive a fair share of the revenues received by streaming companies, AI companies, broadcasters etc. I am really looking forward to engaging even more intensively in this joint international effort in the years to come,” says Mey.
TONO was established in 1928 and is a non-profit, cooperative performing rights management organisation (collection society), owned and governed by creators (composers and lyricists) and music publishers, on whose behalf TONO manages financial copyrights to their music. TONO licenses the public performance of copyrighted music on radio, TV, internet, concerts and the cinema etc., for a fee. Each year, it transfers its financial profit from music that has been played in public to the music rights holders. TONO has more than 40,000 members in Norway, but also works on behalf of millions of creators and music publishers around the world. TONO gives music creators a financial foundation that enables them to create new music, and simplifies the process of licensing copyright-protected music for music users. TONO had a turnover of NOK 864.6 million in 2022.
For more information, please contact:
Karl Vestli, CEO of TONO
Mobile phone: +47 932 56 020; Email: karl.vestli (a) tono.no
Willy Martinsen, Director of Communications at TONO
Mobile phone: +47 909 65 254; Email: willy.martinsen (a) tono.no