Musikfonds — Kleine Projektförderung (up to €3,000)

This is the Musikfonds' small pot, and since 2024 it has had a deliberately narrow aim: contemporary music projects in rural Germany and structurally weak regions, with projects in public space added from 2026. If you want to put on a concert series in a town with no venue circuit, or take experimental work somewhere it is not normally heard, this is the money pointed at you.

You must be based in Germany and the project must happen in Germany. Total project costs have to stay under €10,000 and the grant tops out at €3,000 — for anything larger, the main Musikfonds programme runs from €3,001 to €50,000. Eligible costs are artist fees (at least €300 per concert), other project personnel, event and production costs, and travel and accommodation at federal travel-expense rates. Pure audio or video productions, competitions, charity events, university and purely educational projects, trips abroad and equipment purchases are all excluded, as is anything already funded by the BKM or a permanently BKM-funded body.

Co-financing of at least 10% of eligible costs is required, and you have to prove it before the contract is drawn up. It can come from your own cash, other public funders, third-party grants, sponsorship, donations, ticket sales or participation fees.

Applications are online only, at short notice, across four deadlines a year tied to the quarter your events fall in — the 30 November 2026 round covers January to March 2027. The Managing Director decides with a Board of Trustees representative, about two to three weeks later. No more than fifty €3,000 grants are approved in a year.