The creative economy is important. It creates jobs and generates income, including through intellectual property rights. It can make important contributions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). The creative industries are expressions of the imagination, feelings, communal voices and cultures, values and social messages. South Africa is blessed with very creative and innovative people, some of whom struggle to make a living. What does it mean to do creative work during this era of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR)? Massive digitalisation coupled with emerging technologies, such as virtual and augmented realities, can create new forms of cultural experience, dissemination and new business models with market potential.