Extracts from an article first published by UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe.

Shain Shapiro is a global music expert based in London who began his career as a music journalist. He is well known today for his deep knowledge of the music industry and cultural policy thinking as a member of the SDG Media Compact, a United Nations initiative launched in 2018 to raise awareness around the SDGs.

Sound Diplomacy, his economic consultancy, has explored the role of music in urban development in more than 130 cities around the world. Close to his base in London, Sound Diplomacy helped Belfast to become a UNESCO City of Music in 2021.

Shain Shapiro is also the founder and director of the global nonprofit Center for Music Ecosystems and author of “This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better” (Repeater Books/Penguin Random House, 2023), a book translated into six languages.

The Center for Music Ecosystems is the Secretariat of yet another initiative, the Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts (ORCA). This think tank includes international independent music labels that are committed to increasing the social, cultural, and economic value of music and working towards its sustainability. In this exclusive interview with UNRIC, Shain Shapiro shares his insights on the many links between music and the SDGs.

For the complete article see https://unric.org/en/how-the-music-industry-can-keep-advancing-the-sdgs/