Teosto, Finland’s collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers, took in EUR 16.4 million from audio streaming in 2025, up from EUR 11.2 million, a 46 percent jump.
That is the headline in the society’s 2025 results, published 20 March 2026. The number underneath is more useful.
Teosto’s March 2026 distribution paid EUR 13.7 million to more than 7,200 authors and publishers. The median payment to an individual author was about EUR 93.
Most of the growth was not growth
Total copyright revenue crossed EUR 92.3 million for the first time, against EUR 88.1 million in 2024. Online services accounted for EUR 25.3 million of that, split between audio streaming at EUR 16.4 million and online audiovisual at EUR 8.9 million.
Roughly EUR 4 million of the online increase came from an accounting change rather than from more listening. Teosto moved international online services onto a usage-based recording practice, pulling revenue into the year the music was actually used. Chief executive Risto Salminen said as much in the release: most of the growth, in his words, can be explained by non-occurring factors.
For anyone modelling Finnish publishing income, that matters. The 46 percent streaming line is a one-time re-basing on top of real but slower underlying growth. Treat 2025 as a new floor, not as a trend line.
Radio has a published price. Streaming does not.
Teosto publishes estimated distribution values per minute of music: EUR 1 to 1.50 a minute on the largest commercial radio stations, EUR 0.50 to 10 on national Yle stations, and up to EUR 20 to 60 a minute for visual music on the highest-reach TV channels.
For Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music it publishes nothing. Teosto states plainly that non-disclosure agreements inside those licensing contracts stop it releasing even estimated per-stream values.
So the only Finnish writer income forecastable from published rates is the broadcast and public performance part, which is also the bigger part. Radio and TV accounted for EUR 6.5 million of the March distribution, public performance EUR 3.2 million, online services only EUR 2.3 million.
The deadline that decides whether you get paid at all
Teosto pays four times a year: 23 March, 15 June, 21 September and 14 December in 2026. Each settlement covers usage from roughly two quarters earlier, a shorter wait than the six-month floor SUISA applies in Switzerland.
Registration is the gate. Teosto’s own wording is that if a work has not been registered, it cannot pay compensation for the use of that work. There is no holding pool like the three-year claim window OSA runs in the Czech Republic.
Publishing agreement details carry a separate, earlier cut-off: 5 January for the March payment, 1 April for June, 20 July for September, 10 October for December.
The three dates to diary
- Register the work before release. Five working days is the processing time, not the deadline.
- File publishing agreements by the quarterly cut-off, roughly eleven weeks ahead of the payment date.
- Expect nothing under EUR 25. Below that threshold the balance rolls forward to the next distribution.
Late joiners are not entirely lost: Teosto pays retroactive radio and TV royalties for the year of joining plus the two preceding years. Live royalties reach back only to the year of joining.
The master side runs on a different clock
Teosto covers the composition. Recording royalties for performers and producers sit with Gramex, Finland’s neighbouring rights society, on its own four-payment calendar.
Finland’s recorded music market was worth EUR 65.5 million in 2025 on IFPI Finland’s own count, streaming at EUR 61.1 million, or 93.3 percent of the total. Domestic repertoire took 37.7 percent, the same pattern that runs through Iceland’s export economics.
So an independent Finnish act runs two ledgers. Master-side income arrives monthly through distribution and can be reconciled at ISRC level, ISRC meaning International Standard Recording Code, the unique identifier attached to each recording. Writer-side income arrives four times a year, two quarters late, priced by a formula that is only half visible.
Both are worth collecting. Only one reports back fast enough to change what you do next quarter, which is the case for a distributor whose royalty reporting breaks out by track and territory.
