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C U LT U R E & T H E M E D I A
TOPIC
INNOVATIVE CREATIVE INDUSTRY
Culture and the creative industry are among
theatre, orchestras) or part of civil society
the economy’s most innovative sectors. In
(arts, associations, foundations). Through
Germany, their contribution to total eco-
the consistent promotion of start-ups, in
nomic output (gross value added) is steadily
many cities a raft of service providers has
increasing and today is already on a par with
arisen in the fields of design, software and
major sectors of industry, such as mechanical
games in particular. Specifically, the soft-
engineering. Sales by the creative industries,
ware and games industry relies on interfac-
which now embrace some 249,000 com-
ing different segments, such as film, video,
panies and in which 1.5 million people work,
music, text and animation, to tap the sec-
totalled around 145 billion euros in 2013.
tor’s potential and in 2013 this spawned total sales of 31 billion euros. The Berlin-
The common core of work in culture and the
Brandenburg region leads the way, with a
creative industries is the creative act under-
good 200 companies. No other area has such
lying artistic, literary, cultural, musical, ar-
a concentrated gaming infrastructure, in-
chitectural and creative content, works,
cluding the relevant colleges. That said,
products, productions, and services. Struc-
Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne
turally speaking, the sector is defined by self-
and Munich all have clear creative industry
employed freelancers, and small or micro-
clusters. A closely interlocking range of con-
enterprises (97 percent). They are primarily
sultancies, networks and grants provides an
private-sector based – meaning not first and
ideal basis for this, along with high-perfor-
foremost in the public sector (museums,
mance IT infrastructures.
Sector with great potential
The cultural and creative industries bring
traditional segments of business together
with new technologies and modern forms
of ICT. In Germany it includes 12 sub-segments: the music business, bookselling,
the art market, the film industry, radio, the
fine arts, architecture, design, the press,
advertising, software/games, others.
Steady growth: companies in the cultural and creative sectors
202,049
2004
219,376
2006
248,721
232,770 244,290
2008
2011
2013
Sources: BMWI/destatis, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels
DIAGRAM