New Polaris agreement with YouTube

01 October 2020 - Press release

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.