"Supporting the cultural sectors and the creative economy as a way to diversify economic activities is a key issue. The media, museums, theatres, cinema, all these infrastructures have a positive impact on society because they allow economic development, the proliferation of ideas and innovation that lead to progress."

Youssou N'Dour, Senegalese singer, composer and producer

What is it?

The creative economy (also known as the orange economy) is the most abstract sector of the economy at large, as it revolves around knowledge and ideas. It covers two vast economic subgroups:

• Culture: art, entertainment, cuisine, architecture, design, fashion, advertising etc.
• Knowledge: research and development, education, computing and telecommunications, gaming, high technologies, robotics and nanotechnology, as well as artificial intelligence and the air and space industry.

Products that come from the orange economy stand out because of the intellectual activity behind them. That means that a great part of its power resides in intellectual property.

Intellectual property

This type of ownership distinguishes itself by its –in many cases- intangible character. The most known types of intellectual property are copyrights, patents, trademarks and industrial-commercial secrets. However, there are intellectual properties that do not belong to a single person or entity but rather to cities, regions and even nations; that’s the case with denominations of origin and the UNESCO-recognized heritages.

Other characteristics of the creative economy

• People who work in the creative industries value the purpose of their work and the efforts they make far beyond their monetary worth or prestige. Good examples of this are small music groups or scientists who work in fields like molecular chemistry.
• Regardless (or maybe because of that), the fruits of their work tend to be unique and have a value very often unrelated to their functionality. Such is the case with a work of art, or a much discussed topic these days: vaccine patents.
• Because of their uniqueness, these products are created knowing that there’s a distinct possibility that they will not work or have no public acceptance. For example: for every big musical hit each year, there are thousands upon thousands of tunes that never make it.
• And finally, society itself and the fast pace of advances in knowledge often make time a crucial factor on the success and prolonged existence of the products of the creative economy. Goods examples are: the two video systems that fell to the success of VHS, or one-hit musical bands that disappear.