Bogota, September 2023. The Bogota Chamber of Commerce, through the Music Cluster Initiative, made up of performers, artists, managers, authors, record labels, music producers, venues, festivals, specialized media, government entities, collective management societies, event producers and academia, will hold, within the framework of the Bogota Music Market - BOmm, the Music Industry Meeting in which the main advances of the cluster and its actions for 2024 will be presented.

During the event, which will take place on Monday, September 11, starting at 4:00 p.m. at the Teatro Colón, two talks will be held. The first one on Licensing and Original Music with the participation of Mike Turner, music supervisor, Mark Garfield from Pop-Up Music and Patricia Carrera from Control Freaks. The second panel will deal with music tourism (live music, national and international festivals and music education) with the participation of Eduardo Montoya from Asobares, Adrián Sabogal from Marimbea, César Martin from Vector de Ideas. Diana Ledesma, Undersecretary of Arts, Creation and Cultural Promotion of Cali-Petronio Alvarez and the moderation of Juan Arbeláez of 4DMusik.

Juan Carlos González, Vice President of Competitiveness of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, stated that "Bogota concentrates the largest number of companies in the music industry in the country. It is a region that must continue to strengthen its companies to make them more prosperous and sustainable. The joint work that we develop from the Music Cluster Initiative, together with public, private and academic actors, points to this purpose that contributes to the generation of a greater economic impact in the region and the internationalization of the sector".

Precisely, the main objective of the Music Cluster is to position Bogota as the "City of Music" in Latin America" (nomination we have had from Unesco since 2012), making it an important music and music business center. For this reason, it has focused its actions on live music events, recorded music, music tourism and the nightlife economy. The agenda of the Initiative, which seeks to create links between entrepreneurs from the entire chain of the sector, academia, governments and public entities, allows the sector's stakeholders to identify the main gaps that limit their competitiveness in order to solve them under four lines of work: human talent; innovation and new businesses; internationalization; and sustainability.

One of the Cluster's major commitments is condensed in the Competitiveness Program for Music, which seeks to promote the development of the music industry through projects and actions to strengthen the distribution links such as live music/entertainment events and music synchronization. The first is the live area, which seeks to articulate live music venues and artists and groups; the second is environmental sustainability in live music venues; the third is licensing and original music; and the fourth is an information system that provides economic figures for the music sector in Bogota and Colombia. To date, close to 644 companies in the sector have benefited from the program. To learn more about this program, please visit https://www.ccb.org.co/empresarial/sectores-empresariales/cluster-musica/programa-de-competitividad.

Some interesting figures on the music industry

The Music Cluster currently (cut 2023) has about 2000 active companies which are distributed in the following economic activities:

• Live music performances (including live music venues) (53%).

• Music creation and recording (28%).

• Other entertainment activities (9%).

• Sound broadcasting (8%).

• Manufacture of instruments (2%).

These companies by size are distributed as follows:

• 92% are micro companies.

• 6% are medium-sized.

• 2% are small.

In 2022, companies in this industry generated approximately 755 billion pesos in sales. This is largely due to the fact that more than 600 events are held per year on average, and 2023 to date has already surpassed the average of other years.