About us
The broad variety of topics covered by the miz range from musical education and training to amateur and professional music-making to media and the music economy.
Since its founding in 1997, the miz has helped people find their ways in the dense musical landscape by providing information online, through print publications and directly in person: How many people make music in their free time? Where can young talents find funding? How high are the revenues of the music economy? Persons from cultural politics and associations, media and science, as well as professional and amateur musicians receive answers to questions about education, leisure, politics and much more. The information offered by the miz includes various formats: Representations of the institutions of musical life, articles, statistical data, topographical maps on the infrastructure of specific areas, documents on cultural politics, specialist literature and news, in addition to special databases on continuing and further education and currently advertised funding measures.
The miz has built its service on the extensive data collection of the ‘Musik-Almanach’: The standard reference work on musical life, issued by the German Music Council, appeared at intervals of about three to four years from 1986 and until 2007, and from 1998 onwards the miz was responsible for its content. As a facility of the German Music Council (DMR), the miz makes use of the infrastructure and network of the DMR as well as the specialized knowledge of its cooperation partners from all areas of musical life. The miz is one of some 40 members of the International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC) and therefore also networking outside Germany and cooperating with music documentation centres and similar institutions worldwide. At the same time, it is a specialised information and reference centre for enquiries from Europe and abroad.
The miz serves the needs for information of cultural policy and associations, media and science, and amateur and professional musicians.
The miz is funded by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media (BKM), the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States (KSL), the German Organisation for the Management of Neighbouring Rights (GVL) and the City of Bonn.