Berlin clubs and the break-even figure

Clubcommission, the Berlin clubs' association, has published a study this year reporting that about 61 per cent of the city's clubs broke even in 2025. I have only seen this figure in summaries, and survey numbers of this kind depend on who answers, so I treat it as approximate. It suggests that something like four clubs in ten did not.

I ran a programme in Leipzig, so I know what that looks like from the inside. The figures below are mine, are illustrative and belong to no particular room.

Take a 500 capacity club on a Saturday. Say 400 people at €16, which after VAT leaves about €5,400. The bar used to pay for everything, and people now drink less, while it costs more to buy in. Against this you have rent, which for many Berlin clubs was agreed a long time ago and is now up for renewal. You have energy, and not only for the lights. You have staff, who should be paid properly, as well as security, cleaning, music licensing and insurance. And you have the artists, whose fees went up after the pandemic, including ours.

What has happened already

I do not want to overstate this. Berlin clubs have been in crisis in every year of my working life, and many are programming very well this autumn. But in 2024 the owners of Watergate decided not to renew their lease and gave inflation, energy and rent among the reasons. Around its fifteenth birthday in 2025, the collective at ://about blank asked publicly for €150,000 to secure its future, and it also has the A100 and reported hotel plans to think about. GLB Artists has a night there next month. Leipzig lost Institut fuer Zukunft at the end of 2024, for reasons that included rising costs and fewer visitors since the pandemic. Munich lost Blitz last month, for different reasons.

What it changes for GLB Artists

First, I no longer accept a guarantee from a room if I think it will hurt them. This has happened twice this year. Both moved to a door split, and in one case the artist did worse from it and in the other better.

Second, the three-hour rule turns out to be useful. One DJ for six hours is one fee, one hotel room and one set of flights, where a line-up of four is four of each. I did not expect The Long Count to become a cost argument. Mark Neilson says it always was.

Third, I now ask promoters about their finances directly, before contract. In my experience a good promoter will tell you.

Some people say young people have stopped going out. I see audience figures only for our own nights, and they do not show that. They show people arriving later, leaving earlier and buying fewer drinks, which suggests people watching their money. In a study like this one, that person appears only as a line in the bar takings.

Anselm Reuter plays ://about blank on 17 October.