The Runda Digital Day conference round was held for the fifth time on November 15 in Belgrade at the Youth Center. This music conference, organized by the Regional Association of Independent Discographers – RUNDA, gathers music publishers from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.

This year, Ana Ilić, senior advisor for creative industries and tourism to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, opened the conference with an introductory speech.

“Creative industries, in addition to education and digitization, are one of the three most important sectors and the focus of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, because they are the drivers of Serbia’s economic development,” Ilić emphasized in her speech. “Since the moment when we started providing systemic support for the development of the creative sector, back in 2017, we have achieved a lot, especially when it comes to the film industry and gaming, thanks to the support of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and financial incentives, as well as an extremely colorful scene. We want the music industry to have this kind of progress and for musicians to create in a world where they don’t need to have another additional job, but can only create music professionally. That is why it is important for us to cooperate with Impala and Runda, because the music industry in our region depends solely on independent companies and artists. Together, we have the same goal, to educate music professionals, to encourage them to connect with each other and, in the end, to use music as cultural diplomacy to position Serbia on the international stage. We provide support to the music scene through the platform Serbia creates music, a specialized part of our platform”

At the meeting that preceded the conference held in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the partnership of the national Platform Serbia Creates with Impala and Runda was made official. Together we are aligned in our goals and vision – committed to developing the independent music sector, returning greater value to artists, authors and publishers, as well as promoting positive change and advancing understanding for potential improvements.

About 150 panelists, speakers and delegates from more than 20 countries took part in the conference, making it the most international RDD to date. Music professionals from Europe and the world, as well as those from the region, discussed current topics from the music industry, digital distribution, digital rights, exchanged knowledge and experience, business practices and presented the latest trends on a series of panels and presentations. One of the central topics of the conference was the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in the music business, ways of promoting concerts and festivals through digital tools and platforms, using music in film and TV production, the importance of publishers in today’s music industry, starting music companies, marking 50 years since the birth of hip-hop and very current topics like environmental sustainability in the music industry.

“The support of the national platform Serbia creates is a strong signal of recognition of the importance of the independent music industry today. With this kind of support from the Government of Serbia, a chapter of cooperation with Runda has been opened and it is a positive example of networking of institutions and the creative sector in the region” – said Dario Draštata, president of IMPALA, the European organization of independent musicians and president of RUNDA.

At the very end, Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza made sure to finish in style with his DJ set at the official afterparty.

This year’s Runda digital day successfully connected Belgrade and Serbia with Europe and the world and strongly positioned them on the map of important music conferences with the agenda to grow into a two-day, even bigger international event next year in September.