Gender Pay Gap in der Kulturbranche – Same Stage, less Pay? ・ Pop-Kultur Festival 2026

August 24–30, 2026 | silent green Kulturquartier, Festsaal Kreuzberg, Kulturbrauerei, Pierre Boulez Saal, and more 

Live concerts, experimental music formats, talks, and more. You can look forward to international and local artists, world premieres, and music in all its forms—from large stages to intimate club shows.

“Same stage, less pay?” The stage may be the same, but the pay often isn’t. While the cultural sector likes to see itself as progressive, open, and diverse, the numbers tell a different story: Women in the independent cultural scene continue to earn significantly less than men. Among freelance artists, the gender pay gap currently stands at around 25 percent—and it’s even higher in the music industry. Here, women earn on average 27 percent less than their male colleagues. Why is that? Behind these figures lie not only individual inequalities but also deeply entrenched structures: informal networks, traditional gender roles, a lack of transparency, and an industry that often confuses visibility with value. What needs to change so that female artists are paid fairly? This discussion brings together stakeholders who understand the mechanisms of this inequality from very different perspectives—including union work, label policies, music practice, and media coverage. Together, they explore why fair pay in the cultural sector is still the exception rather than the norm, how economic power is distributed, and what forms of solidarity, organization, and structural change could actually make a difference. It’s about money, visibility, work—and the question of who in pop culture can actually work and under what conditions. The discussion features Lisa Mangold, a union secretary at ver.di, who—together with colleagues—has developed models for transparent and fair compensation for independent cultural workers. She is also a co-initiator of the “Publishers Against the Right” initiative and a member of the MF 3000 collective. Also joining the discussion is Mine, whose music blends pop, hip-hop, and orchestral arrangements into a cinematic soundscape and who has been addressing issues of visibility, authorship, and production conditions in the music industry for years. Also joining the panel is Anne Haffmans, Senior A&R Manager at Domino Records, one of the most internationally renowned independent labels. In her work, she provides long-term support to artists and has been involved in the careers of Depeche Mode, Moby, Franz Ferdinand, and Wet Leg, among others. The discussion will be moderated by Juliane Reil and Christoph Reimann. Reil—once jokingly called “Miss Real” by Chilly Gonzales—is a music journalist and author. She worked for many years as a host at ByteFM before moving to Deutschlandradio. There, she hosts programs and serves as a critic—including on cultural and sociopolitical topics. Reimann has been working for years as a journalist, host, and producer for outlets including Deutschlandfunk Kultur and ByteFM.