How to get payment

Yes, if you are registered with Gramo.

Shops, cafés and gyms pay Gramo for the music they play, even when it comes from Spotify.

Gramo does not know exactly what each business plays. That is why we use play data from the streaming services and radio stations the businesses use to estimate what has been played. This is called distribution by analogy.

Read more about distribution by analogy in Gramo's general principles (in Norwegian)

To have money paid out, you must have earned at least 0.5 per cent of the National Insurance basic amount (G) in the course of a year. The threshold is set in section 31 of the Regulations to the Copyright Act. If you have earned less, Gramo holds the amount for up to three years. If you pass the threshold within those three years, the amount is paid out. If you do not, the money is not paid out.

If your music has been played this year, you will receive payment for it next year at the earliest.

It is perfectly fine if your music is not yet registered with Gramo before it is played in public. If you register the recording with us today, you will receive money for it for up to three years after it was played.

To get money from Gramo, the recording must be protected.

Under the Norwegian Copyright Act, protection is based on the producer's home country. The recording is protected when the producer is based in Norway, in the EEA, or in a country that has joined the Rome Convention and gives Norwegian rights holders an equivalent right to remuneration.

In addition, Gramo grants protection when a performer from the EU/EEA takes part in the recording.

The USA has not joined the Rome Convention.

A recording (sound recording) is protected for 70 years after it was first published or made public, in accordance with section 21 of the Norwegian Copyright Act (in Norwegian).

The 70-year term of protection applies to sound recordings from after 1 January 1963 that are covered by the provision.

Sound recordings from before 1 January 1963 have fallen into the public domain. This means they are no longer protected by copyright (in Norwegian).

The main payment is Gramo's largest payment of the year. It covers recordings played publicly the previous year, for example on radio, in shops, cafés or gyms. We pay out to everyone registered as a rightsholder to these recordings.

When we identify new rightsholders or receive updated information about recordings after a previous payment, we make a post payment. This happens with every payment for up to three years after the music was played.

There can be several reasons. The most common are that:

• the recordings are not registered with Gramo
• you do not have the correct role (performer/producer)
• the use has not yet been reported to us
• the music was played this year, in which case you will receive payment next year at the earliest
• the amount is below the minimum amount for payment

The minimum amount is 0.5 per cent of the National Insurance basic amount (G) in the course of a year. If your amount is lower, Gramo holds the money for up to three years. If you reach the minimum amount within those three years, the money is paid out. If you do not, the money is not paid out.

Log in to check your registrations, or contact us.

The annual statement shows the payments you have received from Gramo during the year and is used for your tax return. Log in to see the annual statement.

Payment from Gramo should appear in your tax return.

Gramo sends annual information to the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten) about how much we have paid you.

The amount may also include any money for private copying that Gramo pays out on behalf of others.

Tax return

You must check for yourself that the information in your tax return matches the information in the annual statement.

In the tax return, payment from Gramo is listed:

• Under NOK 50,000 as capital income
• Over NOK 50,000 as business income

You can change this in the tax return.

Do you have questions about your tax return?

Contact the Norwegian Tax Administration on 800 80 000
or read about the tax return on the Norwegian Tax Administration's website

Gramo has distributed Norwaco remuneration to Norwegian and foreign performers on behalf of Norwaco, GramArt, Creo, Norsk Artistforbund and Norsk Tonekunstnersamfund. You receive the money from us because we handle the distribution and payment to individual rightholders.

Gramo and TONO both collect money for the use of music, but we administer different rights.

• Gramo collects for the use of the sound recording itself. The money goes to the artists and musicians who performed on the recording, and to the producers who arranged and paid for it.
• TONO collects for the use of the work, meaning the music and the lyrics. The money goes to composers, lyricists and music publishers.

When a track is played on the radio, the station pays both Gramo and TONO. If you both wrote and recorded the track, you can be a member of both.

Gramo and Norwaco are both approved under section 21 of the Copyright Act, but we collect for different uses of sound recordings.

• Gramo collects when sound recordings are played in public, for example on radio and TV, in shops, at gyms or at bars and restaurants.
• Norwaco collects when a broadcast containing sound recordings is retransmitted, for example when TV and radio channels are distributed by cable or streaming.

Norwaco also collects in other areas, including for the recording of programmes for use in education, and distributes part of the state compensation for lawful private copying.