The so-called Club Study of the Initiative Musik provides the first overview of the situation of music venues in Germany. The nationwide online survey ran from September 28 to October 31 last year and enjoyed a high level of participation. The resulting data set has now been published and not only provides information about the impact of the Corona pandemic on music venues. It also helps identify a “clear, genre-independent definition of live music venues.” Until now, these venues have been difficult to pin down. Now there would be a uniform picture of what makes them “culturally, socially and economically distinctive.”
The need for such a study has been around for a long time. The Corona pandemic and the very problematic situation of clubs made it many times more urgent. Clubs are still stigmatized and assigned to a supposedly disreputable milieu rather than culture. This made it very difficult for many music venues to obtain bridging aid during the crisis. Since May 7 of this year, clubs and live venues with a demonstrable cultural connection have been considered cultural.
The club study provides a good basis for further discussions on cultural policy. Here, for the first time, the economic size of the sector is also made clear. 2,000 music venues with 45,000 employees generate a total turnover of 1.1 billion euros, according to the results.
The complete study report is available for download here.
Our interview with the Initiative Musik is available here.
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