The Music Commission

The Music Commission is the entity concerned with activities related to the production, development and dissemination of musical content in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including live and recorded performances, music recordings, digital music, audio innovations, etc.

Established in 2020, the Music Commission is one of eleven cultural entities simultaneously approved by the Council of Ministers, and is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture. The commission has a public legal personality, financial and administrative independence, and an annual operating budget within the Ministry of Culture's own budget, and its employees are subject to social insurance and labor laws.

The commission runs its activities from its headquarters in the capital, Riyadh. It is comprised of a Board of Directors, chaired by the Minister of Culture who oversees the Commission’s plans and programs, and makes the decisions necessary to achieve its goals. The commission's CEO is appointed by the Board of Directors to manage its affairs.

The logo of the Music Commission was inspired by the shapes of the piano and organ keys. Its colors symbolize the creative space enabling Saudi talent. The logo was inspired by the Ministry of Culture's own logo and colors.

The Music Commission endorses training programs and certification entities specialized in training fields falling within its competencies, in addition to providing scholarships for the talented, along with vocational and educational programs. The Ministry of Culture supported this trend by launching a unified electronic platform in 2020 for external cultural scholarships. The Music Commission aims at promoting culture as a lifestyle, starting with enabling access to musicology for all children, including those with special needs, as well as embracing and empowering talented children.

As stipulated in its organizational arrangements, the commission carries out several tasks, most notably, supporting those working in the music sector, empowering local talents, encouraging musical artistic production, promulgating laws in the music sector, encouraging funding and investment within the commission’s competencies, establishing a music sector database, licensing activities in its field of work, organizing events and competitions, and holding local and international exhibitions and conferences.

The establishment of the Music Commission unveiled the Ministry of Culture's desire to advance all artistic disciplines and tracks of the music sector within a timeline set by the ministry to achieve its goals, such as embedding musical arts in the education curricula, preparing for the inauguration of music academies in several Saudi cities, as well as partnering up with Saudi universities.

The strategic initiatives of the Music Commission included the establishment of key music academies. This goal was achieved through the inauguration of the Saudi Music Hub, the first of its kind in the Kingdom because of its methodology, comprehensiveness, wide educational and training scope, and geographical spread. The hub’s branches are distributed across several regions of the Kingdom, starting with two main branches in Riyadh and Jeddah, which began receiving registration requests for those wishing to learn music, in addition to a third branch in Khobar, where registration will be available soon. The Saudi Music Hub provides lessons in Arabic instruments, Western instruments, computer music production, song coordination skills, singing, and other musical disciplines.

In 2022, the Music Commission announced the launch of the Saudi Music Hub by receiving the requests of all those wishing to learn music and its various arts, under the supervision of accredited musical trainers. Registration was opened for the public through the hub's website.