MusicTech capital Berlin

23.04.2019

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 not only reunited two long-separated countries, it also shifted Berlin’s narrative from the divided city to the city of freedom. In the 1990s, the city’s unique circumstances turned out to be fertile ground for a young electronic music scene. Over the years, merging creativity and freedom, a once rebellious “collective” developed into a professionalised and vibrant field of business, also pushing music-tech companies to the forefront.

Having been around for over two decades, pioneers like Native Instruments and Ableton were among the first to embrace the merging of music and technology, somewhat coining not only the term “music-tech”, but the industry itself. Embracing and promoting digital change, they carved the way for more music-tech companies to follow, with Soundcloud being among the most influential. During the mid-2000s, the global online audio distribution platform opened its global headquarters in the German capital.

A driving force behind technological developments since the 1980s, the Chaos Computer Club, advocates a transparent and independent use of such technologies, addressing and appealing to Berlin’s numerous music and tech developers. A few decades later, blockchain technology emerged as the revolutionary concept behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and Berlin tech companies like Resonate and SatoshiPay were among the first to adopt it. Transparency and decentralization are two of the main aspects connected to the introduction of the blockchain. To encourage large-scale acceptance, questions about data-security for example, need to be solved. In Berlin, companies can find developers who are able to tackle these issues and set new standards.

With a widespread portfolio ranging from audio editing to new and sustainable music rights management, the ever-growing industry then spawned startup after startup, with even smaller companies finding their niche. Mimi Hearing Technologies for example used a big data approach to develop an app that scientifically checks the hearing ability of a user within minutes. Another young music-tech-startup in the early stages of its development, Eleven, is conducting research at a software, which provides transparent insight for collaborating music creators on what percentage of the music they actually own.

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What Mimi, Ableton, Eleven and Soundcloud have in common is running on and embracing disruptive technologies and digital change. As the capital of Europe’s largest and economically strongest country, Berlin is home to one of the most dynamic and diverse media landscapes, including telecommunications, publishing, advertising, film, games, and music - with music-tech alone generating an estimated annual turnover of approximately 2 billion euros.

As a result of its productive and creative environment, major players within Berlin’s music-tech-scene came together in 2017 to form the world’s first official music and tech association, MusicTech Germany. The coalition of, entrepreneurs, benefactors, artists, developers and experts from different backgrounds strives to support a competitive development and pushes for political support in order to provide the best conditions for founders and innovative minds.

Watch the following video for more facts and figures from the music-tech capital Berlin: