By Keren Karp, Maria Paula Gutierrez, David Karolinski and Claudia Rojas
Marzahn and other “invisible” districts of Berlin may very well be the next upcoming playground of the independent music scene in the city.
An offbeat course on the creative industries of Berlin, offered at the Hertie School of Governance in collaboration with INPOLIS, lured us into a small research project examining the relationship of Berlin’s public policy framework to the evolvement of the independent music industry in the city. Along our research, we reached the conclusion that public policy should foster the expansion of the music industry to districts located in the outskirts of the city, i.e. Marzahn. In this article, we present a short background to introduce our case study, our findings and our consequent proposals.
Music industry in Berlin and especially in Marzahn
The music sector is one of Berlin’s most important creative industries in regards to tourism and city branding and it has always been a driving factor in the German music scene. The relatively cheap real-estate prices in comparison to the German average are a key incentive for music sector players to move to the capital. Since this sector in Berlin is mostly composed of small-to-medium sized independent companies, the Berlin Music Commission (BMC) is the overarching non-governmental network representing the music industries political and financial interests through lobbying and public affairs. Continue reading
