In 2024–2025, technology, business and creativity specialists Gigle produced Growth Strategies for Creative Industry Services, a report exploring how creative services are bought and sold and mapping industry attitudes towards money and earnings. The report, which forms part of a wider project funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and Next Generation EU, drew responses from more than 1,000 providers and buyers of creative services. The results reveal that just 53% of creative industry professionals feel that they have control over their careers and earning potential. This figure gives cause for considerable concern. If the creative industry is to remain viable, and more importantly, capable of developing and evolving, the professionals operating within it must have the power to make change happen. If not, others will come along and decide on their behalf how the arts sector of the future will look. 

 

Many creatives survive on grant funding and the size of the markets in which they operate is often modest. No matter how good you are at what you do, it is rare for a play or other artistic work to enjoy a life span like the one enjoyed by Stones in His Pockets, the smash hit tragicomedy by Marie Jones that has been playing to sell-out audiences across Finland since 2002. Fostering closer collaborative relationships within the industry and using licensing and other similar strategies to maximise exposure and longevity could benefit not only the artists themselves but the environment too. Extending the life span of individual artistic works makes not just financial sense but sustainability sense too.  

 

In 2024, the Arts and Culture Barometer (Cupore, 2024), an annual survey commissioned by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, found that, in the past year, 45% of respondents had considered changing their careers or leaving the profession entirely. The key reason for this? Economic insecurity, or to put it another way, the perception that the industry may not offer long-term financial security for the professionals within it. In the midst of a rapidly changing world, what is it that needs to happen now for the arts to be viewed as an industry that is capable of generating steady and reliable incomes no longer reliant on, and also future-proofed against cuts to, grant funding? 

 

 

 

We face a choice as an industry. Will we continue as we are and fight our colleagues for the ever-diminishing funding opportunities that are available? Or will we instead come together to explore how we can monetise our work and thereby generate sustainable, long-term income growth for ourselves as artists? 

 

According to Deloitte, the creative economy could grow 40% by 2030. Numerous other studies and reports forecast a similar surge, for creative services in particular. When it comes to licensing your concept, a variety of models – and past success stories – already exist, often involving powerful commercial backers, such as Broadway producers and the Wizarding World franchise. 

 

While there may be no shortage of supply, or competition for that matter, it is also true that getting your concept out there has never been easier. So, what should we be doing, as Europeans, to raise awareness of what our continent has to offer? How can we come together and craft works that will captivate the hearts of audiences everywhere? How can we make sure that our creative ideas stand out on the world stage? Will the major political shifts taking place in the United States drive greater demand for European productions? 
 

 

 

Okay, that sounds wonderful, I can hear you saying, but what is concept development and what do you mean by licensing? Allow me to explain! A concept is a thought, an idea, a creative notion, something that you have come up with in your mind. It can also be used to refer to a theme, a style or a structure. Conceptual design, by contrast, is about productisation and packaging. It means taking that idea of yours and turning it into something that is clearly defined, highly relevant and always repeatable, a product that can travel and resonate with an audience in another theatre or another country. Licensing, on the other hand, means giving exclusive or non-exclusive permission to someone else to make use of your creative work. 
 

 

 

When I talk about “success” in the context of the arts, I don’t mean that every artist out there should immediately set their sights on million-strong audiences. What I am referring to is viability: the ability to pursue your chosen discipline and make a decent living from it. According to our research (Gigle, 2025), 69% of creative industry professionals are motivated not by money but by demand. Knowing that people want to hear you and see you is what matters to them. Licensing is just one way to grow your audience and, as a result, boost your own motivation. 

 

The next obvious question is, what is stopping you from getting your work out there? Is it that you think you lack the necessary skills and expertise? Feel that you don’t quite understand how the licensing and product development processes work? Could it be that you’re worried that success, including financial success, will get in the way of your creativity? Are you concerned that if you were to entrust your work to someone else, they might not do it justice? Is the work so deeply personal to you that you actually cannot bear the thought of anyone else using it? Does your artistic identity make it impossible for you to believe that anyone else could take your work and re-produce it to the same high standard? Or are you perhaps fearful that someone might steal your idea? Or is there a sense that commercial success will turn you from artist to entrepreneur and you will lose something integral in the process? 

 

When you find yourself facing something new and different, it is always a good idea to take a moment and think about what it is that really, truly motivates you. Are you driven by a desire to create something new? Do you want to build a legacy? Are you keen to meet new people and connect with others? Or, do you just really crave the limelight? 

 

If sharing your stories is what drives you, it is definitely worth exploring licensing. Licensing and productisation can help you expand your reach further than you ever thought possible – and maximise your artistic and creative impact. 

 

 

 

Although impact in the arts is rarely measured in purely money terms, it is also true that the stronger you are in this area, the easier you will find it to meet the match funding requirements frequently attached to publicly funded grant schemes. Funding bodies looking to deliver more impactful outcomes may also be looking to shift their focus towards scalable concepts. Enhanced productivity and higher revenues will also mean that the industry’s voice is heard where it matters. 

 

Now, how might you go about distributing your creative work? Several different models for this are available. Artists in another country or culture might choose to produce your work in their own language and maybe localise aspects of it to make it more relevant to their audiences. Stage directions and other production notes, however, can be attached to any localisation deal which the licensee must follow. Productions can also go ahead on a visiting artist basis with you working with a local team in another theatre or country to bring your work to the stage. Alternatively, you can opt for an open-source model, which provides free access to your artistic work in line with any instructions or restrictions attached to it. A good example of this type of licensing is Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen’s Complaints Choir. Since 2007, the concept has been freely available to use on an open-source basis. So far, it has been picked up by around 150 choirs around the world. 

 

Licensing has the potential to deliver significant reach, accessibility and impact for your project or work. Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer originally debuted at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe as a monologue delivered by the writer himself. Since then, it has reached an audience of 60 million around the world in a range of different formats. 

 

When works are distributed internationally, it instantly and inevitably drives collaboration between different countries and cultures. Given the state we currently find ourselves in, this can only be a positive thing. What matters in international contexts is that projects are set up to drive experimentation, all parties are committed to building relationships based on trust and the creative and artistic concepts around which they are built are well protected through robust licensing agreements. With all of that in place, these collaborations can generate opportunities and benefits that are impossible to envisage in advance.  
 

 

 

What matters is that you take that all important first step, get started, and then decide whether, having done that, your prospects have diminished or improved. If you set your aim high enough, you will not be able to go it alone. So go find yourself a partner, a collaborator, a co-creator, whether at home or elsewhere in Europe. Instead of endlessly planning, thinking and preparing, set up a project, make sure your colleagues are on board and get creating.  

 

Author: Inkeri Borgman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article is commissioned by TINFO. TINFO’s Portable Sharing project explored licensing and concept design in the performing arts context. The project was funded by Nordic Culture Point. 

 

 

 

 

 

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