Remunerations for narrators for the library use of e-audiobooks

If you think that you might be entitled to remunerations for an e-audiobook that you have narrated, you should contact our customer service team. This allows us to check whether a book you narrated is among the e-audiobooks that are entitled to remunerations.

In order to receive remunerations, you must register in the public lending right scheme service (in Finnish only), where you can view and update your customer information. In addition to your personal information, we will need your valid tax card in order to pay remunerations. The service will also show you a list of the e-audiobooks for which you are registered as the narrator and calculations of the remunerations paid to you.

The remunerations payable for each year are available for three years of their allocation. The minimum amount of remunerations to be paid out is EUR 10.

With the amendment of the Copyright Act in 2024, remunerations will also be paid for the library use of e-books and e-audiobooks in the collections of public libraries and university libraries. Remunerations will be paid for e-books and e-audiobooks that are available to library users for a limited period of time.

The remunerations do not apply to commercial e-book or audiobook services, such as the ‘online bookshelf’ services of publishers or other parties or e-book and audiobook streaming services for consumers.

In Finland, the management and payment of public lending remunerations and remunerations for the library use of e-materials is divided between three copyright organisations. Kopiosto pays public lending remunerations and remunerations for the library use of e-materials to authors of visual and photographic works. We also pay remunerations for the library use of e-materials to narrators of audiobooks. Sanasto pays public lending remunerations to authors of literary works and Teosto to authors of musical works. These organisations agree on the distribution of remunerations between each other.

The distribution of the remunerations paid by the Ministry of Education and Culture to authors is based on the lending statistics of public libraries, university libraries and the national E-library. The appropriation allocated for public lending remunerations is specified annually in the state budget. In addition to Finland, audiobook narrators are also paid remunerations for the library use of e-materials at least in Denmark and Canada.