Tuesday 10 September 2013

Introduction to Creative Industries

Introduction to Creative Industries
The word “creative” is around all of us, its seen anywhere you look, advertising, architecture, arts and antiques, crafts, music, film and video, computer and videogames, software, publishing, design, fashion, performing arts, etc.
The creative industries refer to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They are also referred to as the cultural industries.
 They have been seen to become increasingly important to economic well-being, proponents suggesting that "human creativity is the ultimate economic resource," and that “the industries of the twenty-first century will depend increasingly on the generation of knowledge through creativity and innovation".
Various commentators have provided varying suggestions on what activities to include in the concept of "creative industries", and the name itself has become a contested issue, with significant differences and overlap between the terms "creative industries", "cultural industries" and "creative economy".
Resources
Sectors.
• Advertising in Britain, employment in advertising, which includes marketing and some public relations activities, is dominated by multinational agencies, and is heavily centred on London. The London-based communications group, Wpp, is the world’s largest by revenue, employing almost 140,000 people in more than 100 countries.
• Architecture, like many creative industries, the architecture sub-sector is made up of a handful of big firms and a very large number of small ones. The sub-sector’s fortunes are closely linked to those of the construction industry. a number of British architects have achieved international reputations, including Norman Foster, Richard rogers and David Chipperfield.
• Art and antiques market, this sub-sector includes dealers and auctioneers of antique jewellery, paintings, sculpture, furniture, maps, drawings and prints. in Britain, most such businesses are small but some, notably Sotheby’s and Christie’s, are internationally important.
• Crafts. The dCMs includes textiles, ceramics, wood, metal, glass, graphic and leather crafts in this category. Businesses in this field are mostly tiny: 75 per cent are sole traders. The majority of craftworkers are women and, perhaps surprisingly, are mainly based in urban areas.
• Design this sub-sector is hard to assess as much of it is hidden within other industries. The dCMs therefore looked at design consultancies and designers working in industry. It found that 70 per cent of British design companies were active abroad. London in particular has a strong reputation in this field, based on its excellent design schools.
• Fashion design is a relatively small sub-sector, but is highly integrated into the international market – even small fashion businesses look to export their products. Britain’s fashion schools have helped train numerous internationally renowned designers, from John Galliano to Stella McCartney.
• Film and video this sub-sector includes film production, distribution and exhibition. Although the UK has a number of successful home-grown producers, such as Working title, the Hollywood studios dominate the British market. the number of films produced in Britain, and their box-office returns, fluctuates considerably from year to year.
• Interactive leisure software this sub-sector principally consists of computer and video games, but also includes some educational and reference material. British gaming firms have a reputation for innovation, but many of the games they develop are sold by foreign-owned software publishers. dMa design, a Scottish firm responsible for the initial development of the grand theft auto series of games, is now ultimately owned by take-two, an American publisher.
• Music this includes both live and recorded music, music publishing and the administration of music copyright. Britain excels in most forms of music, from rock and pop to classical, and its consumers spend more per head on music than almost any other country. eMi, one of the music industry’s ‘majors’, is based in London.
• Performing arts, theatre, dance, ballet, musicals and opera performances all fall into this category. These art forms usually depend on a mix of public subsidy and private ticket sales and funding. some parts of the sub-sector are nonetheless big revenue earners: London’s West end theatre, with its wide variety of musicals and plays, is a major tourist attraction.
• Publishing. The publishing of books, newspapers, magazines and electronic information is one of the largest employers among the creative industries. the widespread use of English internationally means that book publishing in particular is a globally connected industry.
• Software and Computer services, the biggest creative industry of all in the UK is software and computer services. It covers the creation, production and supply of tools and applications and of software products, including web design. the large majority of employment in this sub-sector is based outside London. American multinationals tend to dominate in this field, but some British companies do well in niche markets, including autonomy and sage in business software.
• Television and radio, this sub-sector covers all public service, commercial, cable and satellite tv and radio, including the production and broadcasting of programmes. The BBC dominates the British market, but many independent companies have devised formats which have been successfully sold abroad. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which has been shown in more than 100 countries, was developed by the independent company, Celador.
History and Development.
In our interdependent contemporary world at the start of the 21st century we face complex challenges, polarisation and inequality within and between nations. Development strategies are needed to unleash the creative potential of all to respond to the far-reaching cultural, economic, social and technological shifts that we are living through. In this context the concept of ‘the creative and cultural economy’ is growing around the globe as the interface between culture, economics and technology. Our world is increasingly dominated by images, sounds, symbols and ideas that are creating new jobs, wealth and new culture. The Uk has been a leader in the development of this agenda, not just as a driver of the economy but also promoting social inclusion, diversity and development. No-one can claim a monopoly on wisdom as innovative creative people all over the world are changing the way we make and exchange goods, services and culture. This booklet (and the series it is part of) is a contribution to our shared knowledge and expertise for this emergent and valuable sector. We hope you find it both stimulating and useful.
The term “creative industries” originated in the mid to late 1990s and was first taken up at a national level by the UK’s government. The concept was an attempt to change the terms of the debate about the value of arts and culture. While the arts were supported to some degree or other by most governments, they tended to be seen as marginal to economic life and dependent on public subsidy. Advocates of the creative industries idea believed that this was too narrow a view – the totality of economic activity stemming from creativity and culture, including their commercial forms, needed to be considered to understand their true contribution. This activity included not just the traditional art forms, such as theatre, music and film, but service businesses such as advertising (which sell their creative skills mostly to other businesses), manufacturing processes that feed into cultural production, and the retail of creative goods. it was argued that the industries with their roots in culture and creativity were an important and growing source of jobs and wealth creation.
The adoption of the creative industries concept was very much associated with the election of the new labour government in 1997 and the creation of the, then department for Culture, Media and sport (dCMs), now department for Culture, Olympics, Media and sport (dCoMs), which built upon the functions of the earlier department of national heritage. One of the new department’s first acts was to set up the Creative industries task Force, which was responsible for the landmark Creative industries Mapping document in 1998 and a follow-up report in 2001. The 1998 mapping document was the first systematic attempt to define and measure the creative industries. It was designed both to collect data on the industries and to promote a deeper understanding of the sector by telling its story in a way that politicians, journalists, investors, academics and government officials could immediately understand. it revealed, to the surprise of some, just how economically significant the creative industries were. it calculated that they accounted for almost a million jobs and 4 per cent of gdp in Britain, and earned £7.5bn from exports. it also showed, though, that the sector was polarised between a myriad of very small firms and sole traders and a handful of very large, often multinational companies.
The idea of the creative industries soon started to catch on as it was seen as encapsulating a truth about Britain’s changing economic landscape. In particular, the definition adopted by the dCMs and the list of creative industries derived from it soon became influential. The dCMs regards the creative industries as: ‘those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property1.’ in its first mapping document in 1998.










Economic and Cultural importance
According to the latest data, 64,660 people were employed in the creative industries in Scotland, an increase of 11 per cent on 2003.
Areas in which growth was particularly strong include music and the visual and performing arts, architecture and software, computer games and electronic publishing.
Total turnover in the sector in 2007 was £5.2 billion, with gross value added (GVA) around £2.4 billion. This represents growth (in real terms) of 66 per cent in turnover and 54 per cent in GVA between 1998 and 2007, and compares with growth of 73 per cent in creative industries GVA at the UK level. Similarly, Scotland’s creative industries exports increased by 36 per cent, in real terms, between 2002 and 2007 to a total value in excess of £3 billion. This accounts for a fifth of the UK’s total exports in 2007, at a value of £16.6 billion (Scottish Government, 2009)
The creative industries sector in Scotland employs 64,000 people and the total turnover of businesses operating in this area is estimated to be £4.8 billion.
Scotland’s excellent reputation in the digital media and creative industries sector has been cemented in recent years by a series of significant innovations and developments. As new media accelerates, so does the worldwide demand for new products, innovative technology and enhanced methods of delivery.
The rapid developments in media, mobility and the internet are all currently fuelling the growth of digital media and the creative industries.
In 2007, the Scottish Government identified a number of key sectors which offer high-growth potential and the capacity to create economic impact for Scotland. The creative industries were identified as a sector with massive growth potential. 

Scotland's main economic agency
, Scottish Enterprise, focuses on growing Scotland's industries, with a particular emphasis on digital content and technologies. With a raft of business support, this booming sector is ripe for investment.
Worldwide, the global entertainment and media industry is predicted to be growing at a rate of 7 per cent annually, with exceptionally strong growth in the mobile/wireless, internet advertising and video games sectors. 

With a creative culture, strong support and a consistently strong output, for a small country Scotland holds an impressive role at the forefront of this creative revolution.
Sectors Interaction
 Public Sector Interactions
1 Strategic level
Government sets the policy context and holds the leadership role for creative industries. Its overarching aim is to promote Scotland’s sustainable growth by ensuring creative industries have the environment and support to enable them to flourish. The Minister for Culture,
External Affairs and the Constitution is committed to ensuring Government cultural policy encourages and sustains those who create, ensures that their work is accessible and guarantees the opportunity to take part in creative activities. The aim is to support creators, give access to creations and involve everyone in creativity.
Unlike other more “mature” key sectors, there is no formal action plan bringing together the strands of work to support creative industries, although that is not to suggest that work is not on-going. The Government is committed to delivering on the potential for creative industries and will draw together an action plan to deliver key outcomes, setting out the overall direction, identifying the support needed for creative industries to deliver these outcomes in order to achieve increased growth and productivity and identifying which bodies will deliver that support. The plan will be evidence based, identifying what is known about where public sector intervention is most effective in adding value and areas where no intervention is necessary. The Government will develop this plan over the next six months, involving a range of key organisations with the expectation that it will be finalised and implementation underway by April 2010.
.2 Operational levels
As part of the Government’s simplification agenda, the delivery landscape is changing.
Creative Scotland is being established, bringing together the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. This has implications for the range of organisations involved in providing support to creative practitioners and an effective partnership approach has been agreed in Scotland‟s Creative Industries Partnership Report. A wide range of organisations across the public sector provide support to those involved in creative industries. Organisations such as Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen (which will become Creative Scotland), local government, skills agencies and further and higher education provide different services.
The Creative Industries Framework Agreement8 was published on 5 February 2009 to set out how the complementary roles of the key organisations will fit together, emphasising the need for an effective interface and joined up approach. It describes at high level the essence of the roles:
 Creative Scotland will provide research, intelligence and advocacy across the creative industries and will lead co-ordination activity in developing the sector. It will develop the functions of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen using its sector specific knowledge, skills and experience;
 The enterprise agencies will identify and develop growth sectors, sub-sectors and businesses to maximise the economic potential of the sector.
 Local authorities will support creative industries in their area and have responsibility for the Business Gateway which will provide generic business advice and signpost to other specialist support and advice.





Creative Industries questions
What is it?
The creative industries are all the companies working in the creative sector, for example, adverts, music performances, etc.
The creative industries are the ones to create everything you see in an event or tv, etc. From logos to banners, colours, designs, shape, etc.
2. Where did the idea come from?
The idea came from in the 1998’s with a mapping document that was the first systematic attempt to define and measure the creative industries. It was designed both to collect data on the industries and to promote a deeper understanding of the sector by telling its story in a way that politicians, journalists, investors, academics and government officials could immediately understand. It revealed, to the surprise of some, just how economically significant the creative industries were. It calculated that they accounted for almost a million jobs and 4 per cent of gdp in Britain, and earned £7.5bn from exports. It also showed.
The idea of the creative industries soon started to catch on as it was seen as encapsulating a truth about Britain’s changing economic landscape. The definition adopted by the dCMs and the list of creative industries derived from it, it became influential. The dCMs regards the creative industries as: ‘those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property1.’
3. What are the main vocational areas within the sector?
The main vocational areas within the sector are advertising, architecture, arts and antiques, crafts, music, film and video, computer and videogames, software, publishing, design, fashion and performing arts.
4. Give two examples of major developments or initiatives affecting the sector over the last ten years.
·         The government is continuing to support content producers in the British creative industries, offering tax breaks for filmmakers, television producers, animators and video game producers

5. How is the sector important to the Scottish economy?
This sector is important to the Scottish economy because it generates a lot of work opportunities and therefore a lot of people working and gaining money for the country

 6. Give an example of its cultural importance to Scotland
The creative industries are vital for the economy and also good for the culture of the Scotland. With the more jobs that become available in the creative industries the more talented people will be trained and will participate in local events like festivals and exhibitions.
One good example of this is the “Year of Creative Scotland 2012″. The focus is to promote an increase in cultural tourism with events and festivals and enhancing existing festivals that happened in 2012. Festivals include music, dance but involve people from all parts of the creative industry to participate in the festivals and events.
This is great for showing the culture of Scotland and the innovation of our creative industry but at the same time it means the creative industry is doing its part boasting the economy through the tourist attraction and the creation of more jobs.
7. How does the Creative Industries sector differ from the Cultural Industries sector?
Cultural Industries are an adjunct sector of the creative industries. Cultural Industries focus on cultural tourism and heritage, museums and libraries, sports and outdoor activities, and a variety of way of life activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Cultural Industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value, including cultural wealth and social wealth, rather than primarily providing monetary value.
8. What is meant by synergy within the Creative Industries?
Synergy is when two or more groups come together that have a common goal that will end up in producing an end product. For example when a musician creates a song they will need the song advertised, and the advertisers may need film and video sector to produce it and need software and computer services to edit it, then finally it may be put on the television or radio which includes another sector. All these sectors working together to produce a unified end result.
9. Choose a vocational area you may like to work in. What are some of the key issues facing that area?
Some of the issues that I might find on the videogames area are:
- Lack of adequately skilled employees issue.
-Getting a job issue.
-Low quality of specialist video games courses at universities.
-To develop a brand new game never seen before.

-To find a publisher.