Sound Diplomacy Digest: Bogotá, Hong Kong and...Saunas?! What's shaping the future of music?
- Music Cities Events
- Jul 23
- 3 min read
We’re excited to share that our parent company, Sound Diplomacy, the world’s leading consultancy firm helping cities use music to foster development, has a new Digest out and it’s full of mind opening articles that you need to devour.
This month’s Digest includes topics such as:
How Hong Kong’s youth is redefining the frontiers of creative placemaking
How Governments can leverage ‘Trigger Cities’ to strengthen their music export policies
Wellbeing and Clubbing experiences are on the rise, opening a fertile ground for cultural innovation at their intersection
Scroll down to explore the Digest and the links to the articles. Also, head here to sign up so you can receive future editions of Sound Diplomacy’s Digest directly to your inbox.
Sound Diplomacy Digest:
Our Global Insights into Music, Culture,
and the Creative Economy
What shapes music influence in 2025? And how can placemaking meet the needs of a new generation?
This month, we look beyond traditional music capitals to spotlight the power of emerging creative ecosystems.
Firstly, we head to Hong Kong as cultural strategist Zoe Liu explores how young people are reshaping the city post-pandemic through art, food, fashion and “low-key” social spaces, and what placemakers can learn from their everyday creativity.
Then, we zoom out to the global music map, as Liliana Ramirez unpacks Trigger Cities, where hotspots like Botogá and Jakarta are shaping global music trends. First coined by Chartmetric, the term refers to hyper-engaged local audiences instrumental in propelling artists from local hero to international stardom.
And finally, we’re soaking up something a little different: a closer look at the bubbly convergence of sound, steam and subculture. From bathhouse raves in NYC to ambient sauna sessions in Berlin, the worlds of wellness and nightlife are colliding in unexpected, and maybe necessary, ways.
This month’s guest Digest is authored by Zoe Liu, cultural strategist, semiotician and founder of cultural insights studio Commune. With a background in brand strategy and a specialist focus on China, Japan and youth culture, Zoe helps global organisations make sense of cultural change. Her work blends semiotics, trend analysis and futures thinking to uncover creative and strategic opportunity.
In this piece, Zoe turns her attention to post-pandemic Hong Kong, where economic uncertainty and dampened prospects have left many young people questioning their future in the city. But look closer, and you’ll find a new cultural landscape taking shape, one built not around mega-events or formal institutions, but in laundrettes, pop-up cinemas, vegan cafés and slow-fashion studios.
Drawing out three emerging cultural platforms, Zoe offers a fresh perspective on youth culture as placemaking, and how cities can build meaning and belonging through everyday “low-key” experiences.
The future of music influence isn’t in legacy hubs, it’s in Trigger Cities - think São Paulo, Jakarta, Bogotá. These places may not be the global music capitals you’re thinking of, but they’re becoming the launchpads for major international success.
Originally coined by Chartmetric, the idea of Trigger Cities helps explain how local engagement in "secondary" markets can lead to global momentum. With highly active audiences, low advertising costs and a culture of sharing, these cities are reshaping the music map, and with it, music policy.
Through an interview with Chartmetric’s CEO, Andreas Katsambas, Sound Diplomacy Events and Education Coordinator Liliana Ramírez, explores why these hubs matter, how governments are using the data to guide strategy, and what it means for the future of music development.
Sound Diplomacy Shares:
From Clubbing To Tubbing
Wellness meets rave culture in a subcultural crossover that’s heating up. Literally.
From ambient DJ sets at Berlin’s Liquidrom to sunrise ice-bath parties in New York, the bathhouse is emerging as an unlikely cultural hotspot, a venue where healing meets hedonism, and clubbing goes low-alcohol, high-vibe.
As Gen Z seeks connection, intention, and IRL experiences, bathing culture is being reimagined. These are spaces where music and mindfulness co-exist, where saunas come with soundtracks, and where the future of nightlife might just involve more steam than shots.
Written by Therme Group’s Adam Bamba Tanaka, this is a read we dove into head-first and had to share. Hit the link to submerge yourself in the trend, its ancient roots, and what it reveals about where wellness, culture and community, collide next.
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