Music industry in Catalonia generates €834 million annual turnover, providing 4,000 jobs

A total of 379 companies operate in the music industry in Catalonia generating an annual turnover of €854 million and creating 4,088 jobs, according to a report published on Friday by ACCIÓ, part of the Catalan Ministry of Business and Labor, and the Barcelona Music Lab foundation.

The figures show the “potential” of the sector, Albert Castellanos, secretary for Enterprise and Competitiveness of the Catalan Business and Labour Ministry, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) during the presentation of the report.

Half of the companies work with live music, while 27% work with recorded music.

55% of the companies are based in Barcelona. Curanta explained that one of the reasons is that Barcelona has the largest concentration of live shows in Catalonia.

Catalonia generates around €100 million in ticket sales, of which “more than half” are for concerts in Barcelona, explains Curanta, adding that festivals such as Primavera Sound, Sónar, and Cruïlla are one of the main reasons why so many more companies work with live music.

29 of the companies in the music industry are startups, and 53 are specialized in music tech, meaning technological solutions for music. Another 4.5% of the companies are foreign companies.

39% of live music revenues from promotors 

Of the 379 companies, 194 work with live music and generate €697.8 million, or 82% of the total turnover.

Furthermore, concert promoters make up almost half of all companies active in live music and generate 39% of all live music revenue.

Majority of jobs in live music

The report shows that the live music sector is responsible for 73% of all jobs in the music business, employing a total of 2,973 people, while the recorded music sector employs 18% and the remaining 9% are employed in cooperative and transversal areas.

R&D in Catalonia

In terms of research and development, there are currently eight research groups, according to the report, one of which is the Catalan Music Technology Group from the University Pompeu Fabra, which Castellanos calls “a point of reference in Europe.”

In 90% of the cases, the research is related to the use of artificial intelligence, such as the interpretation and automatic reproduction of lyrics, the automatic generation of images and animations related to the songs, or sound mixing to create new ones, among others.

Education

According to the report, 492 students were enrolled in bachelor’s or master’s programs during the 2022-2023 course, while 2,980 students were enrolled in other music-related study programs during the 2020-2021 course.

The object of this new study is to "emphasize the economic dimension and the ability to innovate and introduce new technology in a sector that is traditional" Castellanos said.