On Thursday, March 9, Estonian Authors` Society visited Finland Authors` Society TEOSTO. The aim was to get to know Finland Authors` Society, share experiences and to see how authors` society everyday work looks like after the pandemic years.
During the day, CEO Risto Salminen, customer experience manager Miia Engberg, IT department representatives Jouni Siren and Ano Sirooiniemi, and licensing department manager Markus Kaarto gave an overview of Teosto operations.
We had an opportunity to hear about how authors join and how the society has organized the use of works, i.e. licensing. They talked about IT projects which require time and investment, which they have planned in detail until 2027. They introduced TEOSTO`s strategies for the years 2022-2025 and spoke about that in more detail. We reviewed how the TEOSTO`s Authors portal looks and how much attention they put to customers’ experience.
“It was interesting to see that we focus on solving many similar concerns – be it the complexity of distributing fees because of the largest data information, simplifying music licensing, or a general cultural trend in empowering music authors. TEOSTO`s visit was definitely an important step towards further cooperation!” says Estonian Authors` Society CEO Mati Kaalep.
“It was truly inspiring to host our close colleagues from EAU and exchange thoughts on the market evolution and best practises. I look forward to continuing close dialogue and collaboration between our societies in the future.” says Risto Salminen, CEO of TEOSTO.
TEOSTO has about 40 000 members, including 757 publishers. In 2021 the society collected 70,1 mln in royalties (including private copying fees and financial income). TEOSTO has 72 employees working on a daily basis.
