LiveKomm publish the first German club study
The German club landscape is facing major challenges, as it emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first nationwide club study was published by LiveKomm on Friday, May 28th. The Federal Association of Music Venues in Germany welcomes the informative results and supports the recommendations for action formulated by the Music Initiative.
The results highlight how imperative it is to ensure that music venues remain intact after the pandemic.
In 2020, a 90% decline in sales was recorded, as cultural establishments have been closed for more than 14 months to this day. The personnel situation has also decreased by up to 75%.
Although the federal association has only been able to record a small number of corona-related operational tasks so far, it remains uncertain whether the specialist and catering staff will come back so quickly. The results show that despite the funding programs now made available by the federal and state governments, music clubs are still facing considerable problems after the crisis.
The association therefore also supports the recommendation to maintain and further expand the existing funding programs in order to enable a new start in culture and economic work.
What is alarming, however, is the imminent generational shift, which will result in a shortage of young talent within the industry.
If the politicians do not create incentives here so that younger people dare to enter the industry and take over music clubs, these cultural venues will be lost. The long-term economic damage will be immense after the Corona crisis.
As a result of lack of security and stability the interest in creative industries, being self-employed, founding or taking over new cultural businesses has already been demonstrably declining due to the crisis.
“We are extremely satisfied with the results of the study that has now been published. The number of participating music clubs is overwhelming. We would like to thank the project team led by Heiko Rühl, the team from Initiative Musik and the LiveKomm networks, who actively supported the collection of the data. For us as an association, the initiation of this study at the federal level was hard work, which is why we would also like to express our thanks to Monika Grütters, the commissioner for culture and media.”
Axel Ballreich, CEO of LiveKomm:
Julia von Wild, Deputy CEO of LiveKomm:
“The numbers are a blessing for us and our members. In a super election year like this, the study offers a lot of arguments against politics. The data collected make the industry tangible and underline the decision recently passed by the Bundestag to officially classify music clubs as facilities for cultural purposes under building law. “
Julia von Wild, Deputy CEO of LiveKomm:
LiveKomm had been campaigning for a survey of the German club landscape since 2017 and developed the concept. In addition to representatives of the German Jazz Federation, the BK Jazz, the BDKV, the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg and the Initiative Musik, the association was a member of the advisory committee of the club study.
Complete study report of the nationwide club study
Download the_club study presentation