gender equality
In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8), Believe and Tunecore have released their fourth annual collaborative report Be The Change: Gender Equity In Music.
Prepared by MIDiA Research and featuring a forward by Melissa Etheridge, the report aggregates responses from 4,146 creators and professionals in the music industry. This research was done through an online global survey translated into 14 languages and executed in November and December of 2023.
Of these respondents, 64% were men, 32% were women and 6% were gender expansive, with this segment indicating that they identify as nonbinary, agender, transgender or other. One-on-one interviews were also conducted with women and gender expansive creators in the U.S., South Africa, France, Mexico, and India.
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Among the key findings, the survey found that — despite some recently documented gains for women in music creation and representation — women and gender expansive people are far more likely than men to experience the music industry as “generally discriminative” based on gender, with 49% of women and 41% of gender expansive individuals expressing this belief, compared to only 16% of men.
Age plays a factor in regard to this finding, with Gen Z less likely to perceive gender discrimination than older generations. 31% of 16-24-yea- old women view the industry as generally discriminative based on gender, compared to 54% of 25-34 year olds and 42% of women 55 and older. The report notes that this finding “could reflect improving conditions” but could also be a function of younger women not yet being in the industry long enough to experience discrimination.
The study also found that three in five women in music have experienced sexual harassment, and that one in five have experienced sexual assault.
More than 70% of women who have these experiences do not report them, the study says, “due to fear of retaliation and not believing anything would change being the most common reasons.” The study also notes that 53% of men who witnessed sexual harassment and/or assault did not report it, with 37% of these men saying that they “did not feel it was their place.”
Additionally, 56% of women who reported sexual assault responded that their claims were ignored or dismissed. The study found that nearly one-third were told to “keep quiet about it” while 12% were terminated from their job after reporting an incident.
As such, the study states, “the burden is on women to adapt their behavior to avoid misconduct, rather than on perpetrators and the wider industry to stop it happening in the first place.”
In terms of money, the study found that women and gender expansive people “are twice as likely as men to discover they are paid less than colleagues in the same or similar roles.” Identity compounds this issue, with 49% of women of a marginalized race or ethnicity having learned they’re paid less than colleagues. The study advises that the pay gap “is likely even more widespread than these statistics indicate, as individuals may be subjected to unequal pay without knowledge of it.”
There were more positive outcomes from the study as well. The report states that over the last two years, one-third of the people surveyed saw a decline in harassment. Nearly half say their confidence and self-motivation improved over that same timespan, and around a third said opportunities for career progression and promotion have improved. 28% said that diversity of staff has increased and 31% say recognition has increased.
Regarding the key factors in driving positive change, the women and gender expansive individuals surveyed reported that more diversity in positions of power, pay transparency and stronger enforcement are the most crucial factors in shifting the landscape. The study continues that “women and gender expansive individuals lack trust in industry executives to implement change, so many are being the change themselves.”
The report also explores topics like attitudes towards emerging technologies, finding the respondents feel “a mix of curiosity and unease” about the advancement of tech like AI. It also speaks to the challenges of algorithmic demands, saying that “social platforms are increasingly important for music distribution and marketing, which means catering to what algorithms prefer. This ironically limits diversity in presentation, even as it promotes diversity in substance. The pressure to package artists’ identities into palatable, bite-sized social clips can also be damaging. Spotlighting an artist’s age, sexuality, or gender identity in headlines, posts, and marketing strategies may drive engagement and inspire others, but can reproduce existing biases and stereotypes.”
The study also breaks down respondents by region — Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean and North America — finding, among other things, that 65% of women in North America frequently experienced pressure to look good, “the highest of all the regions.”
Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion Tunecore has released its fourth annual Be The Change: Gender Equity In Music Report. Prepared by research firm Midia, the study offers key findings on progress and challenges around representation for women and nonbinary people in the industry.
Beyond the findings, the study incudes a forward from rock pioneer Melissa Etheridge, who reflects on the discrimination she has experienced and witnessed during her four decade career. She notes that while women have dominated the charts for decades, “typically white, male executives have profited from our labor.”
She also tracks some of the changes she’s seen during her long music career, noting that the industry has become more inclusive for women and gender expansive people since she started out in the ’80s, a time, she writes, when being gay protected her from some of the discrimination she saw straight women experiencing.
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She emphasizes how crucial it is to truly be the change one is hoping to affect, writing that “people are sometimes driven by their own misunderstanding and fear, so if you become the love you want to see, we hope they will feel that and change.”
Read Etheridge’s foreward in full:
It’s no secret that the music industry has historically been a boys’ club. There have been decades of music defined by incredible women dominating the charts, but behind the scenes women have often been pushed aside and prevented from reaching the same career heights while typically white, male executives have profited from our labor.
When I started in the business back in the ‘80s, the A&R reps who came out to see me were all men. There were very few women in the business, and this was the norm at the time.
In the late ‘80s, the industry started to change. There was finally a bit of interest in women artists’ music and experiences. In 1988, when I was finally signed and my album came out, women were starting to break through the industry wall. Tracy Chapman, k.d. lang, Toni Childs, and Sinéad O’Connor were writing and releasing songs, and people finally started paying attention and realizing we had something to say.
In music—as in life—being a woman comes with its own set of obstacles, both seen and unseen. Ranging from unequal pay and a diminished sense of autonomy to the countless cases of sexual harassment and abuse that have come to light in recent years from all corners of the industry. And, these obstacles are compounded for women of color and gender expansive individuals.
What was the hardest for me was also a blessing. I was lucky enough to find steady work in L.A.’s lesbian bars, so when I entered the music industry, it was already known that I was gay. It changed the way people responded to me. I didn’t experience the same sexual harassment as straight women did in the industry. Men stood back and didn’t know how to deal with me, so in a way, my queerness protected me.
To me, BE THE CHANGE means that when you try to spend your time and energy trying to change everyone else – that’s a rough road. The best change is to become what you want to see. You want to see more peace, more inclusiveness and understanding? Then you need to be more peaceful, inclusive, and understanding.
I’ve been around in the music industry for over 40 years now – long enough to see how far women and gender expansive musicians have come. It’s really important to give thanks for that so that this work doesn’t feel so impossible. It used to be that people were either straight or gay and now there’s a beautiful rainbow – a whole sphere of beings and ways of being, and it’s important to celebrate that. The best thing to do is not to make it an issue of us against them. People are sometimes driven by their own misunderstanding and fear, so if you become the love you want to see, we hope they will feel that and change.
The history of our industry does not have to be a vision of its future. Studies like BE THE CHANGE: Gender Equity In Music educate our peers and help close the perception gap through storytelling and provide actionable solutions to combat gender-based discrimination.
Through this, we can reshape the face of music. We can work together to create a more equitable, accessible, and inclusive industry, where people of all backgrounds, sexualities, abilities, and gender identities are granted the same opportunities for success. From the stage, to the studio, to the board room, we each have a part to play to make that vision a reality. It’s on all of us to take action to combat discrimination in all forms. Inclusivity is a necessary ingredient for our industry to thrive. We all have to BE THE CHANGE.
After years of stagnancy, women are gaining ground on the charts and at the Grammys.
A report on gender equality in the music industry by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative — which was supported by Spotify and is the latest in an annual series released by the groups — assessed 12 years and 1,200 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, looking at artists, songwriters and producers.
The study, Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender & Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 1,100 Popular Songs from 2012 to 2022, is out Tuesday (Jan. 30.)
The study’s key takeaway is that women’s participation in music creation, which has historically lagged, has improved across several metrics.
On the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, the percentage of women artists reached 35%, a 12-year high. The study attributes this change to the fact that 40.6% of spots on these charts in 2023 were occupied by individual women artists, an increase over 2022 when the number was 34.8%. Improvements were less significant for women-led bands or duos.
The number of women songwriters also increased, from 14.1% in 2022 to 19.5% in 2023. The study notes that this change was due “almost exclusively to the number of women of color credited as songwriters in 2023.” The reports cites 55 women of color receiving a songwriting credit in 2023, a jump from 33 women of color 2022 and 14 in 2012.
Fifty-six percent of songs in 2023 included at least one woman songwriter — an increase from 2022 and the highest percentage in 12 years.
“The changes for songwriters are doubtlessly due to the work of numerous groups working to support women in music,” Dr. Smith says in a statement. “Whether She Is The Music, Spotify Equal, Moving the Needle, Women’s Audio Mission, Be the Change, Keychange, Girls Make Beats, or others, there has been a groundswell of support for women across the last several years. This advocacy and activism is propelling change in the industry. While there is work to be done, these groups are well-positioned to keep fighting for change.”
In the producing realm, fourteen, or 6.5%, of the producers credited in 2023 were women. This surpassed the previous record of 4.9% in 2019. Nearly half, or six, of the women producers in 2023 were women of color. But, over the nine years the study has assessed gender equality in production, 94% of the evaluated songs did not include a single woman producer. Across nine years, there have been 29.8 men to every one woman working as a producer.
The race/ethnicity of artists is also a focus of the report. In 2023, 61% of the artists on the Hot 100 Year-End Charts were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group, while 39% were white. This was a 12-year high and an increase from 2022, when the number was 50.6%, but not significantly greater than the percentage of underrepresented artists in 2020, when the number was 59%.
The study also assessed the six major Grammy categories: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, best new artist, producer of the year and songwriter of the year.
The study found that nearly a quarter (24%) of nominations across these six categories went to women in 2024 — a jump from 15.5% in 2023. This overall change was reflected in four categories: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, and best new artist. This year, nominees in these categories include Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, SZA, Miley Cryus, boygenius, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. In each of these categories, the percentage of women nominees increased significantly from 2023 to 2024 and from the first year the awards were evaluated in 2013.
For the fifth year in a row, no women were nominated for producer of the year.
“Awards like the Grammys show us how women’s contributions to the industry are received,” Dr. Smith says. “The increases in nominations this year are a positive step in recognizing the creative work that women did last year in competitive fields. The Recording Academy has clearly taken inclusion seriously and worked to increase the diversity of its membership, particularly its voting members.”
But, she continues, “There is still too little recognition for women producers and songwriters in those categories, and there are too few women of color nominated for their work. For music industry honors to truly reflect the creative workforce and the audience they serve, there must be a place for women and particularly women of color in these awards.”
Other key findings:
• In 2023, 164 artists appeared on the Hot 100 Billboard Year-End Chart. Of these, 64.6% were men, 34.8% were women, and 0.6% were gender non-binary.
• Across the 12-year sample, women artists were the most likely to work in pop (34.7%) and least likely in alternative (14.4%) and hip-hop (14.9%).
• Across 12 years, Drake had the most credits as a solo artist, appearing 52 times, double that of Justin Bieber, who appears on 25 songs. Nicki Minaj was the woman with the highest number of credits, appearing 25 times, while Ariana Grande followed with 23 songs and Rihanna with 22.
• The percentage of underrepresented women on the charts in 2023 was 65%, with this number the same as 2022 and and almost doubling since 2012, when it was 33.3%. “Put differently,” the study says, “women of color continue to dominate the charts.”
• In terms of genre, across 12 years, women were most likely to write pop (20.1%) and dance/electronic (19.6%) songs, and least likely to write hip-hop and rap (7.5%) and country (9.9%) songs. Even in pop music, where women songwriters most often appear, they were outnumbered by male songwriter by a ratio of 4 to 1.
As the world marks International Women’s Day 2023, a new study is illuminating the pervasive and ongoing barriers to gender equality in the music industry — and how to combat them.
Out Wednesday (March 8), 2023’s BE THE CHANGE: Gender Equality in the Music Industry study was conducted by Luminate, Tunecore and Believe. This study (available in full here) synthesizes the responses of more than 1,650 creators, industry professionals and executives from 109 countries and includes male, female and gender-expansive perspectives.
The globally distributed online survey considered respondents’ ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, parental status, location and age, among other factors.
Primary findings include that in the past year, 34% of women in the music industry had experienced sexual harassment or abuse, 60% of women and 62% of nonbinary individuals felt that discrimination based on age was a significant problem and 53% of respondents felt that cisgender men are paid more than others in the music industry.
The report also highlights a perception gap around these issues, stating that “the music industry has a clear disconnect in how we assume industry professionals and artists experience the industry and the reality.” The survey indicates that 60% of respondents believe gender discrimination is a major issue in the music industry. Women and nonbinary individuals are likelier to see gender discrimination as an issue as compared to men.
The report also found “alarming” rates of sexual harassment and abuse in the music industry, often against women and gender-expansive individuals. Many respondents reported that they did not find adequate resources for survivors or consequences for offenders. Thirty-four percent of women, 42% of trans individuals and 43% of nonbinary individuals who participated in the survey report being sexually harassed or abused at work.
The study also found that gender discrimination in the music industry is compounded by the discrimination of other marginalized groups, with inadequate representation and tokenism complicating women and gender expansive individuals’ experience in the industry. “Minority women, for example, are 114% more likely than average to feel that their hiring decision was, in part, based on their racial, ethnic, tribal background, or country of origin,” the report states.
The industry wage gap also remains a significant problem. Fifty-three percent of respondents agreed that cisgender men are paid more than others, while half of the surveyed women report “having their or another’s professional or career experience discredited, which impacts earning potential in the industry.”
These issues are also compounded by an ongoing lack of equal leadership, with 30% of women, 30% of underrepresented ethnic groups and 74% of transgender individuals reported being passed on for a promotion. Furthermore, 42% of women and 98% of trans people are said that they don’t have access to professional training/development opportunities.
Given these issues, it’s perhaps unsurprising that 76% of women, 82% of trans individuals and 89% of nonbinary individuals reported struggling with their mental health since entering the music industry.
The report also offers statistics on equality in streaming by determining the percentage of female and nonbinary artists represented in the top 50 artists by combined streams in multiple countries last year. South Korea ranked highest in equality, with 48% of the top 50 artist spaces occupied by female and nonbinary artists, while Colombia ranked lowest with just 10%. In the United States and Canada, 21% of the top 50 positions are occupied by women and nonbinary artists.
Beyond outlining the challenges, the report also suggests straightforward solutions. These include creating more transparent dialogues around pay within organizations, the creation of employee resource groups that help advance gender equality, the creation of diverse hiring committees, the creation and implementation of policies that protect survivors of sexual harassment and the removal of NDAs that often prohibit those that have experienced sexual harassment from speaking out.
Respondents reported that they believe executives, companies, major labels and artists are in the best position to create such changes.
“The good news is that BE THE CHANGE is now in its third year and we’ve seen the study’s impact,” TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson said in a statement. “It’s been quoted by the United Nations and widely discussed in creator and executive circles across the industry. But here’s the bad news – we need more change. We, as individuals and as an industry must heed the calls to action and do just that – take action. Small changes add up and if we each do something different each day, week, month, year, we will see a sea change in the industry. So let’s go!”
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