Creating cultural products: Cities, context and technology

•Cities help foster development of a wide range of cultural products.•By agglomerating inputs, cities provide a fertile ground for cultural expression.•Culture and its context play a key role in shaping cultural product creation.•Technology allows cultural entities to extend their reach and expand their markets.•This reinforces major cities' dominance while diminishing secondary cities.

Cities remain critical for the creation of cultural products whether in the realm of film, television, music, opera, dance, fashion or art. Through the agglomeration of creative talent, cities provide a fertile ground for the development of new ideas and forms of cultural expression. This paper explores the role of culture and its context in fostering the creation of cultural products in cities as well as the role of technology. Changing technology is reshaping the role of cities in the creation of cultural products. The primacy of major cities will be reinforced by technology, while at the same time, secondary and tertiary cities face the prospect of being marginalized.