Starter Kit
Here you’ll find all the important information that can help you start your music career. Feel free to browse through the following categories or contact us directly at info@popofficebremen.de.
Starting a Business, Taxes, and Invoicing
If the activity is not pursued as a hobby but to generate profit (even part-time), it must be reported to the tax office.
By completing the tax registration questionnaire, you register your self-employed activity and the tax office will then assign you a tax number. Some basic information can be found in the free brochure “Everything but an entrepreneur? – Tips for founders and self-employed people in the cultural and creative industries” from the Federal Government’s Initiative for the Cultural and Creative Industries. The comprehensive starter kit for becoming self-employed from the Pro Musik association can also be helpful.
Self-employed individuals are classified as either freelancers or business owners. Most cultural and creative professions are typically considered freelance professions, such as musicians. Being freelance means that you don’t pay trade tax on your income. If your income as a freelancer exceeds the so-called basic tax-free allowance of €12,096 per year, income tax is due on the amount above this threshold from your freelance activity.
You register a business if, for example, you also sell sound recordings, start a label, or organize your own concerts. If your activity is classified as a business, you must register it. Trade tax only applies if your business income exceeds €24,500, and is largely credited against income tax (§35 Para. 1 Sentence 1 EStG). More information can be found here.
A band consisting of several self-employed individuals can establish its own legal form. The most common legal form is the civil law partnership (GbR). More information and a template for a GbR contract can be found here. The trade tax is then owed by the partnership and still credited against the income tax of each partner.
That depends on many factors. Income tax is levied on all profits from self-employed activities, regardless of the type of activity. Important: For mixed activities (e.g., self-employment and employment), all income is added together to determine the tax rate for the self-employed activity. Self-employed individuals must file an annual income tax return. How much income tax must be paid can be roughly calculated using the wage and income tax calculator from the Federal Ministry of Finance.
A presentation by tax consultant Mariya Staykova, which she gave at one of our POPup MEETups on the topic, can be found here. Tax tips for artists are also summarized in this brochure.
This depends on whether you as a self-employed person (or as a GbR) are subject to sales tax or not. If the estimated total revenue from all self-employed activities is under €25,000 (until 2024: €22,000), you can classify yourself as a “small business owner” and issue invoices without sales tax. More information on the small business regulation can be found here. If you are subject to sales tax, you must show sales tax on your invoices depending on the type of service or goods. The standard tax rate is 19%, the reduced rate is 7%. For musicians, the reduced tax rate usually applies to performance fees and copyright payments. If you are subject to sales tax, you have the advantage of being able to reclaim sales tax paid on business expenses from the tax office.
Financing and Funding
Apart from POP Office, musicians residing in Bremen can apply for funding programs from the Senator for Culture. An overview of current calls for applications can be found on our events page. The Bremen State Music Council also offers a comprehensive overview of funding opportunities. In Bremerhaven, there is the Cultural Office that you can contact.
At the federal level, funding is provided by the Initiative Musik, the Musikfonds, the Federal Association for Popular Music (BV Pop), and the Goethe Institute. There are also foundations that support bands and solo artists. The Wacken Foundation is aimed at musicians from the hard rock and heavy metal scene, the Jütting Foundation awards scholarships to young German and Polish artists in the field of popular music, and the Udo Lindenberg Foundation awards a Panik Prize worth €5,000—however, your lyrics must be in German or predominantly in German for this.
Generally, there are different ways performance fees are paid. Donations “passed around in a hat” typically go 100% to the performing artists. With a percentage share of admission fees, 50–70% for the musicians is common. If a venue is rented, organizers must cover not only the rental costs but also fees such as GEMA and KSA, possibly sales tax on ticket sales, and other costs. In this case, it’s often normal for musicians to be offered a guaranteed flat fee depending on their level of recognition and the venue’s capacity. After the “break even,” when admission fees have covered all costs, musicians can receive a percentage share of the profit. At publicly funded events, the fee is often based on the level of recognition.
General guidelines can be found in the recommendations on minimum fees from the Union of German Jazz Musicians. The “Fee Compass” from Pro Musik can also help, which draws on data from various sources, including surveys and experiences from industry experts and experienced music professionals.
Rehearsal Spaces and Studios
An overview of places to rehearse and perform in Bremen and Bremerhaven can be found in this online tool created by the Bremen State Music Council.
In Bremen, for example, Musikszene Bremen or Güterbahnhof Bremen rent out rehearsal spaces.
In Bremen Oberneuland, for example, you’ll find Studio Nord, which was founded in the 1960s as one of Germany’s first private recording studios. There is also
- Harbor Inn Studios Bremen,
- Krumme Klänge,
- Herzblut Recordings, the
- Studio im Zentrum für Kunst,
- Studio Hedwig,
- Tonstudio R,
- Studio von Songs & Whispers, the
- Cos-Mic-Studio or
- Sunsetter Studio.
You can find more recording studios through the Landesmusikrat’s Räume-Online-Tool, among others.
If you’re interested in mastering, mixing, producing, and recording, our experts in the consultation pool will be happy to help you out.
The number of music labels in Bremen is rather small. There is, for example, the Fuego Label or the Weser Label, some jazz labels, and labels founded by musicians themselves. These include, for example, Am Apparat, Erotic Toy Records, Fettherz, or the Latenz Label—the list goes on.
Want to start your own label? Basic knowledge is provided by the label founding checklist from VUT.
Artists' Social Insurance Fund and Insurance
The Artists’ Social Insurance Fund (KSK) ensures that self-employed artists and publicists enjoy similar protection in statutory social insurance as employees. It is not a health insurance company itself, but coordinates the payment of contributions for its members to a health insurance company of their choice and to the statutory pension and long-term care insurance.
For music professionals who pursue a self-employed artistic activity on a commercial basis and derive the majority of their income from it, “membership” is always worthwhile, because the KSK subsidizes the contributions so that those insured through the KSK only have to pay half.
More information can be found on the KSK website.
The subsidy from which those insured through the KSK benefit is financed 20% by the federal government and 30% through social security contributions from companies that exploit art and journalism. This social security contribution is called the “artists’ social security contribution” (KSA). It is a percentage that must be paid to the KSK on all fees paid to self-employed artists and publicists in a calendar year (such as performance fees or fees for poster design). It doesn’t matter whether the self-employed person receiving the fee is insured through the KSK or not. Since the scope applies to the territory of Germany, the KSA is also due when fees are paid to self-employed artists living abroad who are temporarily working in Germany. KSA must also be paid when a “bandleader” pays fees to musicians.
Questions? Our experts in our consultation pool are happy to help you.
In addition to property insurance such as liability insurance for rehearsal spaces or musical instrument insurance, personal insurance such as occupational and disability insurance as well as accident insurance is also important for music professionals.
GEMA and GVL
Both are so-called collecting societies.
GEMA (Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights) takes care of the rights of its members (composers, lyricists, and music publishers). It manages the copyrights transferred to it and makes them available to music users for a fee (remuneration). Here’s a 2-minute explainer video.
GVL (Society for the Exploitation of Neighboring Rights) is responsible for so-called “secondary exploitation,” so it collects fees for performers or performing artists when a piece of music is heard on television or radio, for example. GVL has also provided an explainer video.
So if you both wrote a song yourself and perform it yourself, you are entitled to payments from both collecting societies.
Still have questions? Get affordable advice from our experts!
On the GEMA website there is a calculator to help you decide whether membership is worthwhile. You can find it here.
The amount of your GEMA income depends on individual usage and can vary greatly. Among other things, it matters how many rights holders are involved in the work. In the starter kit from Pro Musik you’ll find some sample calculations.
If you are a member of GEMA or GVL, not taking care of things is not an option. There are some points you should know to avoid leaving money on the table: The database must be maintained regularly. With GEMA, a data check twice a year makes sense to uncover income gaps. Entering songs correctly is one of the most important things—know exactly what to watch out for when submitting. Be sure to check your statements and request any missing income if necessary, and know all the deadlines.
Mental Health
We recommend a consultation session with our experts from MiM – Mental Health in Music. MIM was founded in early 2020 by psychologists and musicians Anne Löhr, Franziska Lauter, and Michael Wecker to contribute to the visibility, accessibility, and thus awareness around the topic of mental health in the music industry.
The association’s consulting pool, which now includes five psychologists and psychological psychotherapists, offers low-threshold psychological counseling and coaching specifically for music creators and professionals in the industry. Here you can find our offer in the consultation pool.
