In a world ruled by screens, sound culture is growing today at dizzying rates. Recorded music, music festivals, the unstoppable phenomenon of podcasts, audiobooks… A sector, that of audio, in full expansion, but weighed down in Spain by its business fragmentation and the difficulty of obtaining financing: festivals Spanish musicals obtain financing from the big international ticketing companies instead of the local banks. For this reason, in the midst of a new technological revolution, the Government is launching a plan with which it hopes to achieve a turning point for the Spanish audio sector: the new Espacio Audio, which seeks to promote it, internationalize it and allow better financing thanks to 160 million euros in credits from European recovery funds.
“The creative industries have a huge impact on society, but we have very little tradition of financing, both by financial institutions and private investment, in the cultural sector. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon countries have a long tradition of financing these industries. And in fact now part of the local industry is changing hands with international financing. The Espacio Audio funds will help to change this tradition and show that it is possible to finance the cultural industries that use audio for their growth and projection”, sums up Jordi Herreruela, director of the Cruïlla festival and president of the Barcelona Music Lab Foundation, at the end the presentation of the new Espacio Audio, which this week brought the Vice President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, and the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, to a concert hall in Madrid, Sala Tempo.
An event organized by the State Coordinator of Private Live Music Venues attended by a large representation of the sector and in which the president of EsMúsica, the Spanish Music Federation, Kin Martínez, pointed out that the Espacio Audio, which It is part of the strategic project of the New Language Economy led by Cristina Gallach, it supposes the “acknowledgment by the Government that we are a strategic sector of the first order, we generate a very important transversal economy and the music industry deserves the same treatment than cinema or audiovisuals in terms of tax benefits”.
In this sense, Calviño pointed out that with Espacio Audio “we want more industry, to strengthen the media industries, supporting the sector and favoring its integration. Promote the production of sound content. Help mobilize private investment. A better regulatory framework. And the training, the qualification, the professionalization of this sector in which all of you are more or less self-taught”. It is a matter, he concluded, “of increasing and taking advantage of our linguistic, technological, and cultural potential, getting Spanish on the train of the digital revolution. For the first time in our history we are well positioned. Spain has the assets to succeed in this digital revolution”. From the Federation of Publishers Guilds, its president, Daniel Fernández, who attended the Tempo Room, was pleased that the plan includes the audiobook, which will make it possible to invest and improve a product that, he highlighted, has “quickly positioned itself above 5% in the national market”.
