£150m Sector Deal for Creative Industries

The deal forms part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and sets out a number of initiatives that are intended to boost growth and productivity across the music industry and other creative sectors.

The funding was announced this morning by Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Creative Industries Council co-chair Nicola Mendelsohn.

For the music industry, measures announced by the Government include work on closing the much discussed ‘value gap’ in relation to creators and digital platforms at European and domestic levels, developing codes of practice aimed at improving cooperative measures to reduce online infringement and a £2m contribution to the ‘Get It Right’ copyright campaign.

Further initiatives include a £20m Cultural Development Fund, the creation of an industry and government Trade and Investment Board targeting a 50% increase in creative industries exports by 2023, development of the next generation of creatives alongside more clusters of world-class creative industries to narrow the gap between London/South East and other regions. In addition, Ministers are aiming to double Britain’s share of the global creative immersive content market by 2025, which is forecast to be worth more than £30bn by 2025.

A dedicated £33m will develop immersive technologies such as virtual reality video games, interactive art shows and augmented reality experiences in tourism.

The Government will also support the UK Games Fund with an additional £1.5m over the next two years to help young entrepreneurs and boost new product creation in the sector.

In addition, cities and towns looking to invest in creative projects can now bid for money from a new £20m cultural development fund.

Chief Executive of the BPI and BRIT Awards Geoff Taylor said: “This Industrial Strategy deal demonstrates that Government is now taking a strategic approach towards the creative industries as a key driver of economic growth. There will be opportunities for the music sector in new funding for VR/AR content, the creative careers programme, the Cultural Development Fund and improved access to finance. But the key new elements for music are the commitment to resolve the value gap and to require online intermediaries to play a more active role in tackling copyright infringement, through the establishment of new roundtables leading to anti-piracy Codes of Practice for social media platforms, online advertising networks and online marketplaces. It is also good news that Government has pledged £2m in additional funding for the Get it Right campaign, to encourage consumers to use genuine sites to discover and access content”.

Sources:

• Huffington Post
• Music Week