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Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap plays a Tiny Desk Conert on May 4, 2019 (Colin Marshall/NPR).

Alex Teitz attended a Zoom on Thursday about a new study regarding Women In Music that was just released. They interviewed over 400 independent artists in the US, UK & Canada. Here is the study.

Foreword by Imogen Heap| I’m so chuffed to be up there with such incredible women as an inspiration to fellow female musicians. I was signed at 18 years old but it took me 20 years to realize how much of an unknown force being a woman in this male-dominated industry had pulled against me. It’s so ingrained, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. I didn’t know any different. That was all I’d ever known. I was lucky to have been encouraged and helped by so many in my own journey, men and women alike. I hadn’t fully appreciated the extra lengths that a few would have gone to, specifically the men, in taking a chance on a “woman” in the studio or working with me on my many various madcap projects.

We have a long way to go still before there is no more need for reports such as these. There are many incredibly talented people across the industry who come from diverse backgrounds and still remain the minority. It will take us all pulling together – every creator and every institution to show that bias is not acceptable, and that inclusivity and equality needs to form a core part of people’s values and beliefs in order to really drive positive change.

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There exists a perception that women are expected to take on the primary role of parenting duties. The music industry wants female artists to be young – partly a symptom of the industry’s youth obsession, but also so that women become successful before they are presumed to decide to take on
the role of motherhood.

To bring more female creators into the industry, women want changes to come from within organizations and from leaders across the music industry through diversity, policies and culture, with 42% stating this as one of the ‘top three’ ways to encourage more women into the industry. Meanwhile, 38% of female creators want to see this organizational change underpinned by
legislation.

The most practical starting point is in female-friendly resources and safe workspaces (34%), and 35% of women creators want more change to come from learning and shared experiences, in the form of coaching and mentoring.

Gendered expectations have skewed recognition and reward in the music industry: of 401 women creators around the world, 81% think that it is harder for female artists to get recognition than male artists. Linked to this is the fact that there are not as many female role models for independent creators (81% agree, 49% ‘agree strongly’).

Almost two-thirds of female creators identified sexual harassment or objectification as a key challenge, making it by far the most widely-cited problem.

Sexualization and objectification are a consequence (or symptom) of unbalanced power dynamics, as shown by the next ‘big three challenges’: ageism (identified by 38%), lack of access to male-
dominated industry resources (36%) and lower pay (27%).

These major challenges are symptomatic of deeper issues of systemic male dominance permeating industry attitudes and behaviours; over 90% of our respondents said that they had experienced unconscious bias – nearly half of them frequently.

Music composition, production and sound has long been connected primarily with men, so it is no surprise that the majority of female creators (63%) feel excluded from the composition and
production, which makes this aspect of music creation highly ‘genderized’.

Although the overall representation of women in society has increased over the past few decades, 84% of women still feel that.

ABOUT MIDIA RESEARCH
MIDiA Research is a market intelligence and consulting firm with long-standing expertise in the business of entertainment and digital media. We are the definitive source for cross-entertainment business analysis, providing a deep understanding of trends and innovations shaping the entertainment market and audience behaviours, which help businesses formulate commercially actionable strategy to navigate the evolving digital content and consumption landscape. Our clients leverage our expertise and insight, proprietary multi-country consumer data and market forecasts to help them make smarter decisions faster. For more details visit our website: www.midiaresearch.com.

ABOUT TUNECORE
TuneCore, owned by Believe, is the global platform for independent musicians to build audiences and careers — with technology and services across distribution, publishing administration and a range of promotional services. TuneCore Music Distribution services help artists, labels and managers sell their music through Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, TikTok and more than 150 download and streaming stores worldwide, while retaining 100 percent of their sales revenue and rights or a low annual flat fee. TuneCore Music Publishing Administration assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration, worldwide royalty collections, and placement opportunities in film, TV, commercials, video games and more. The TuneCore Artist Services portal offers a suite of tools and services that enable artists to promote their craft, connect with fans, and get their music heard. TuneCore, part of Believe, is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, and Austin, and global operations in the UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, India, Brazil as well as the LATAM, Africa and SEA markets. http://www.tunecore.com.

ABOUT BELIEVE
Believe is a world leading digital music company, helping artists and labels to build their audiences and careers, at all stages of their development, in all local markets around the world with respect, expertise, fairness and transparency. Pioneer in the digital world, Believe has developed an in-house technology and data organization, providing global distribution and digital marketing solutions. With more than 1,500 professionals in 50+ countries, Believe owns several brands, labels and companies including TuneCore, Nuclear Blast, Naïve, Groove Attack and AllPoints.

Http://www.believemusic.com

https://www.tunecore.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/03/be-the-change-women-making-music.pdf

[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]

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