You can apply for a scholarship if you meet the following requirements:

You are a musician in the field of popular music (including jazz, rock, electronic music, house music, trance, techno, hip hop, trap, blues, soul, punk, grunge, R&B, folk/singer-songwriter). You work either as a singer, instrumentalist, music writer, composer, artistic DJ, or producer.

Musicians who are mainly working in the fields of classical music and Neue Musik are excluded from the scholarship.

You work as a freelance artist in the fields named above, but not yet as your primary occupation. This means that you generate less than 50% of your monthly income from this freelance artistic work.

You are a newcomer. Newcomers are graduates of relevant pop degree programs from German universities who have graduated between 2019 to 2021, as well as pop musicians without an artistic university degree who have been on the path to professionalization since 2017 at the latest.

Your principal residence is registered in Germany (the cut-off date is March 15, 2020) and pursue your freelance work here. If you are not an EU citizen, we require your residence permit in addition to a copy of your passport.

Only natural persons may apply for the scholarship. Legal persons (e.g., associations or companies) are not eligible to apply.

Only individual artists may apply for a scholarship.

Newcomers are musicians in the field of popular music who have already come into the public eye with their own musical works and can prove this with releases, concerts, or publications of their own work.

Newcomers are musicians who have not released more than two albums professionally and have usually been on the path to professionalization since 2017 at the latest.

You prove your status as a graduate or newcomer by providing relevant documents (see question 10 - Documents).

The following criteria, among others, apply:

● as a studio musician (instrumentalist or singer), you have released at least five professional recordings or have entered into a contractual obligation for a release (master recording agreement)

● as a live and stage musician, you have played at least five concerts during your period of professionalization (incl. streaming concerts)

● as a music writer or composer, at least two works have been published or verifiably been performed

● as a producer, at least five tracks have been published or verifiably been performed

Continuity in the development must be recognizable.

You are still eligible to apply for the scholarship, but the scholarship project at BV POP must not be identical to another program/project already funded from another source. The BV POP scholarship program can not be awarded simultaneously with another federal, state, or local scholarship.

A parallel application is possible. However, only one scholarship may be received. A parallel application for another scholarship must be indicated in the application. Incorrect information will lead to reclaims.

The Pop Stipendium is individual funding for individuals' artistic and professional development. Therefore, an application is also possible if the person is a member of one or more bands/ensembles/projects.

The goal of the scholarship is to enable popular music artists to develop ideas for music during and after the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is supposed to be used to explore one’s own artistic growth and development. This may include expanding one’s repertoire, researching and developing new works, programs, and concert formats, and/or further developing one’s brand. Foreign exchange or academic scholarships are not being funded. Instrument purchases and other acquisitions are generally not eligible for funding.

Examples:

● developing new artistic ideas as well as their elaboration

● learning and testing new techniques and ways of working

● finding new creative cooperation partners

● exploring new forms of musical expression

● reflecting on one’s own musical work and its reconceptualization, taking into account experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

● adapting existing proprietary works to the requirements for performances carried out under the special protective measures designed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as a downsized line-up

● adapting proprietary works to the needs of digitalization

● searching and finding new economic cooperation partners (labels, agencies, publishers, managers)

The duration of the scholarship is four months. The scholarship starts at the earliest on July 1, 2022, with the date of transfer of the scholarship amount, and ends four months later, but no later than November 30, 2022.

The scholarship, amounting to 5,000.00 €, will be paid in two installments:

BV POP will transfer the first installment of 4.500 € (90% of the scholarship amount) to the applicant after receiving the signed scholarship agreement.

Upon receiving the mandatory case report by December 11, 2022, at the latest, the BV POP will transfer the second installment of 500.00 € (10% of the scholarship amount) to the applicant.

Submission of the case report and release of the second installment is a mandatory part of the scholarship. Failure to submit the case report at the end of the project will result in reclaiming the total amount.

In principle, only one round of applications is intended. The period of application is up to four weeks. If the possible number of scholarships has already been awarded beforehand, the application period can be reduced.

If the total amount of funding has not been used during the regular period of application, a second round of applications of up to four weeks can be initiated.

Since this is a qualified first-come, first-serve process (the receipt of the application and decision of the jury), early application is recommended.

Applications for the scholarship can be submitted starting from June 10, 2022, via the website pop-stipendium.de. Registration is possible as early as May 30, 2022.

● description of the conceptual project to be realized as part of the scholarship (2,000 characters max.) as part of the application form

● artistic vita (800 characters max.) as part of the application form

● proof of principal residence (copy of ID card front + back, alternatively passport and registration certificate) as PDF via upload in the application form

● proof as PDF via upload in the application form:

A) for graduates: diploma of a subject-specific artistic course of studies (pop degree course of a German university)

B) for newcomer without artistic university degree: proof of freelance work in the area of popular music in the form of:

• a) proof of membership in the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK)

• or b) proof of membership in the GEMA

• or (c) proof of an administration agreement with the GVL

• or (d) an existing contract with a company in the music business (agency contract, management contract, booking contract, publishing contract, current master recording agreement)

• or (e) confirmation of a pop subsidy institution according to the template of BV POP (will be issued by the regional partners)

Yes, in principle, two meaningful audio or video examples (or proofs of use) of the artistic work must be submitted. The recordings or works must not be older than 2017. These will be listed in the application form as links. It is not possible to submit files by upload. The links must be publicly accessible and not be password protected (no Dropbox files, Google Drive files, or files explicitly uploaded for the application.

Proof of the ongoing professionalization during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic should be provided via links in the application form:

1. two links of current releases of records/music videos/downloads (e.g., Spotify; Bandcamp; Youtube; TikTok), or your own channels where these are posted.

2. two links of articles, recordings, or reviews from external resources on concerts, performances, or productions (e.g., concert announcements, concert write-ups, reviews, articles in online media) from the period of professionalization

3. alternatively, links to use of works/compositions/lyrics/scores of the applicants (e.g., entries into IMDb or Discogs) by other authors/composers

Graduates from bachelor’s and master's courses of study of the legitimate genres (s. question 1) who graduated from a German university (conservatories and universities) in 2019/20/21/22 and are not yet working full-time in an artistic occupation have to submit a bachelor or master diploma.

Pop musicians without an artistic university diploma can prove their freelance work through the documents referred to in questions 10 and 11 and are eligible to apply as ‘Newcomer:in ohne künstlerischen Hochschulabschluss’ (newcomer without an artistic university degree).

Pop musicians who are still studying (and do not have a degree yet) and those with degrees in education (music educators), social science (musicologists), and other areas, as well as those with degrees from foreign universities, are eligible to apply as ‘Newcomer:in ohne künstlerischen Hochschulabschluss’ (newcomer without an artistic university degree).

The application will be submitted as an online form. All documents will be uploaded digitally in the application form.

We hereby inform you that incorrect information provided in the application process and form may lead to a claim for reimbursement of the scholarship funds. The complete application must be written in German. Please adhere to the guidelines (artistic vita in tabular form, character limit, no separate cover letters as attachments).

You can correct the information in the online form. However, please do not submit the application until you are sure about the correctness of all information. The regional partners will support you in the process.

After consulting the project office, you can withdraw the application if mistakes have been made during the application process. Due to the brevity of the application period, we do not recommend this.

It might take up to one day until you receive the confirmation email. If you do not get the email within one day, please send a short message to antrag@pop-stipendium.de.

Please refrain from submitting another application. If it was possible to submit the first application, you can assume that we have received it.

Yes. The project office, which is responsible for the technical administration of the program, is the primary contact for all questions regarding the Pop-Stipendium. You can reach it by telephone or email. However, due to the high number of potential applicants, we urge you only to contact us if you have further questions after thorough consultation of the FAQs and funding principles and if our regional partners can not resolve the questions.

The regional pop supporters (see question 21) listed on this website are available for consultations for the application. The dates and contact details will be published on this website.

An independent jury of experts will be named who will decide on the scholarship applications. If the application conforms to all formal criteria, it will be forwarded to this jury. The decision on the scholarship recipients will be discussed in closed meetings, and no reasons will be given for the decision. There is no right to a scholarship. An application is positively voted if the majority of the jury members positively evaluate it.

After the jury has made its jury (and a formal examination by the project office), and if your application was voted on positively, a scholarship agreement would be concluded between the BV POP and the scholarship holder. This agreement must be lawfully signed and returned to the BV POP.

You will receive the first payment after returning the signed agreement.

You will get a message about the decision. If you receive the scholarship, you will have to sign a scholarship agreement. The agreement has a term of four months. The payment modalities are regulated within the scholarship agreement.

The scholarship consists of a grant in the amount of 5,000.00 €. You will receive 4,500.00 in the first month, and the second installment of 500.00 € will be transferred in December after submitting your case report.

All scholarship holders must submit a form-based questionnaire report and, if possible, video or audio footage and/or scores developed during the process to BV POP by December 11, 2022. This questionnaire can be found on pop-stipendium.de from December 1, 2022. The scholarship holders can get advice from the regional partners to help with the report. The last installment will only be paid after the report has been submitted on time.

Yes. All scholarship holders can get free consulting services from the regional partners, which can relate to the implementation of the project and general career planning.

You can find the contacts and dates for appointments here. The regional partners represent the following regions:

● Baden-Württemberg

● Bavaria

● Berlin and Brandenburg

● Hamburg and Bremen

● Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein

● Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt

● North Rhine-Westphalia

● Rhineland-Palatinate, Hessia and Saarland

● Saxony and Thuringia

As proof, you have to submit a short case report, a form-based questionnaire. You can find this questionnaire on pop-stipendium.de. The regional partner can advise the scholarship holders when filling out the proof as part of their consultation.

We cannot and should not assess the individual tax liability of each individual. Please discuss your individual situation with your respective tax office or your tax consultant.