Status: 07/13/2023 9:50 p.m
The KulturPass has been around for almost a month now: the 200-euro budget for 18-year-olds can be redeemed in a wide range of culture – from concerts to cinema tickets and books to musical instruments. How do the cultural providers rate the programme?
She sits in her office with a smile, says Christine Berg, chairwoman of the HDF cinema association. The cinemas had already cracked the 100,000 euro mark in sales with the culture pass in the first month. Berg hopes for a long-term effect on the cinema landscape – the KulturPass as a kind of gateway drug: “You can only experience the power and magic of cinema there. And that’s why we are very convinced that young people will recognize it,” says Berg .
Today’s 18-year-olds are the ones who have not had this experience in the past three years due to the lockdowns in the wake of the corona pandemic. “That means they weren’t socialized at all. And we’re giving them that now,” says Berg.
Blockbusters attract young people
This gift seems to be well received: the favorites are “Spiderman”, “Indiana Jones” and “No Hard Feelings”. These big movies are mostly watched in big cinemas. In repertory cinemas like the Zeise in Hamburg-Ottensen, you feel a little less of the KulturPass.
So far, young people have mainly been in sneak previews, says Marius Magaard. “Our balance sheet doesn’t look that good yet, but we’re looking forward to the two films that we’re most promising from, especially from the KulturPass.” On July 20, both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” would start – “the two summer art house blockbusters”, as Magaard calls them.
Processing in the cinemas runs “without any problems” with vouchers
In the Zeise cinema, one is satisfied with the technical handling – and hopes for the “arthouse blockbusters” in the summer: “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”.
All offers are available in an app in which young people can redeem their budget. A huge project and a technical challenge. If interested parties book a visit to the cinema in the KulturPass app, the order is processed by a service provider in many cinemas. He issues vouchers for the cinemas that work with all common cash register systems. The cinema association HDF had recommended its members to use exactly this service provider.
A convenient solution for the cinemas, which they pay with 32 cents per booking. The Zeise cinema also uses this voucher solution, says Margaard: “It actually works without any problems, because we have almost twelve different films every day. And they have found a universal solution that was super easy to implement.”
Live music organizers still unsatisfied with the app
In the event sector, however, there is no single, satisfactory solution for implementation. The Association of Music Venues LiveKomm reports that almost half of its members have not yet offered their concerts in the KulturPass. Because the registration for them is too complicated. In May, 69 percent of the clubs surveyed wanted to register for the KulturPass. LiveKomm now writes: “The idea of the KulturPass is good, and we continue to support it. However, it has been shown that access here already ensures that interested cultural providers lose interest. Here, greater involvement of the associations in advance would certainly have been good. “
Easily integrated into the KulturPass app is by far the largest German ticket provider, CTS Eventim – which, with its infrastructure, makes it possible to book directly from the platform. Venues have to make a contingent of their seats available to Eventim – but these are then also available for free sale on the Eventim website, not just for young people. The Dortmund Concert Hall also offers tickets via Eventim, parallel to its own offer on the KulturPass app.
Tickets for KulturPass users actually cost 12 euros 50, but Eventim offers these tickets at a higher price: a concert by Hilary Hahn, for example, costs between 24 and 100 euros at Eventim. That bothers Anne-Katrin Röhm from the Dortmund Concert Hall: “Of course we also earn money from it. So if tickets are now running on this principle, we also earn money. But we’re cheating somewhere – or Eventim is duping the customer a bit because we give him offer the whole thing much cheaper.”
Further information
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Eventim gets more with the KulturPass than the processing fee, annoys Anne-Katrin Röhm: “If an 18-year-old buys a ticket from us, then he doesn’t do it directly from us. We don’t even get the right data from that. It’s all about the KulturPass app. Only with Eventim it seems to be different.” The ticket platform also gets customer data, which is very important for companies today, an additional benefit for Eventim.
A large North German music promoter says that as a result, an industry leader who, according to the Federal Cartel Office, is already a monopolist, is being served all 18-year-olds by the state. For young people, however, the booking process at Eventim is the most convenient. Therefore, many providers would have to use this opportunity to get young people into their events.
Booksellers also see a need for optimization
The book trade also believes that the technical implementation of the app can still be improved. Missing covers or inappropriate recommendations in the app: Kyra Dreher from the German Book Trade Association is not yet satisfied with all the details. “In addition, which is painful for many booksellers, the location selection is not yet entirely reliable. This means that the five bookstores in the immediate vicinity are not always displayed,” says Dreher. In addition, one cannot actively choose one’s favorite bookstore. These are problems that the provider already knows about – an improvement is in sight.
In the future, it should no longer happen that bookstores order books that are not picked up – a reservation in the app is considered an order, but is sometimes used by young people as a wish list.
“First contact” with books thanks to the KulturPass
In the Heymann bookstore in Hamburg, on the other hand, people are happy about the uncomplicated handling of purchases, says Sabine Metzger. Redeeming the credit from the KulturPass has now been integrated into everyday life. Almost 200 young people have already bought books and manga from them with the KulturPass.
The Japanese comics are doing particularly well. Metzger suspects that the KulturPass also introduces new readers to books. “There are also people who we think are not in bookstores that often,” says Metzger. They really used the money to make initial contact with books or, above all, with manga. I think that’s going to have a really good positive effect.”
Further information
The pass is intended to give young adults free access to culture. But not even 5,000 cultural organizers take part nationwide. more
Films like “Rheingold” attract many young people to the cinemas. Will the KulturPass help fill the halls further? more
Does this give young people better access to culture? A conversation with Vanessa-Isabelle Reinwand-Weiss from the Federal Academy in Wolfenbüttel. more
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NDR Culture | Journal | 13.07.2023 | 5:10 p.m