Music is a tool for the creation and consolidation of times, spaces, thoughts, and emotions and therefore has the power to articulate many layers of our societies, with all their diversity and colourfulness.
Yet this rich multiplicity does not always manifest in what we hear whether we are talking about the representation of different genders; different racial and ethnic backgrounds; or different socio-economic strata and disabilities. This is where Keychange plays a pivotal role.
Having started in 2016 following a report on the dire representation of women within the music industries, Keychange embarked on an ambitious project to amend this representational gap, through a motley of tools.
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Keychange is a global network and movement working towards a total restructure of the music industry in reaching full gender equality.
We are blessed to have partners collaborating with us from 11 different European countries, in addition to Canada, [who are all] working proactively to make this change. This year, we have expanded further, founding the Keychange U.S. branch.
Gender identities are varied, and the current designations do not necessarily encompass them all
The latest Music Industry study from Believe, TuneCore, and Luminate, titled Be The Change: Gender Equality in the Music Industry, indicates that cisgender men are paid more than others in the music industry, whereas the sixth annual University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, which was funded by Spotify, states that the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart increased from 28.7% in 2022 to a total of 30%.
There are still significant gaps in representation of women and gender diverse artists in the industry, where only 14% of songwriters on the chart were shown in the report to be women, while women producers made up only 3.4% of all producers, with only one declared nonbinary producer.
Gender identities are varied, and the current designations do not necessarily encompass them all. They do not encompass the multitude of identities each individual holds either, and this prompts the question: how do we go about creating safer and more inclusive spaces to embrace the multitudes within our musical sphere?
At Keychange, we chose to do so through a number of approaches, one of which is an annual participant programme that supports 74 artists and innovators in showcasing their talent and knowledge through the network of our partner festivals, but also by receiving mentorship from our partners at Shesaid.so. Throughout the year, the participants get to network and build on their capacities, knowledge, and experience in what we constantly strive to call a safe space.
As the TuneCore report shows, 34% of women in the industry reported experiencing sexual harassment, while 62% of nonbinary persons felt some form of discrimination based on age. We have therefore chosen to share our Code of Conduct with our partners and participants, which also includes an incident reporting form for our team to look into any concerns.
Now is the time to seek a less patriarchal musical environment for humankind
The mechanisms of dealing with cases of bullying, harassment, and discrimination within the music industries are still nascent, and therefore, we should all work together to foster collaborative efforts to nurture spaces free of any form of aggression.
A trait much needed especially during times of extreme violence. On a broader industry level, we have also been working with over 650 pledge signatories from around the world who have taken the Keychange Pledge to increase diversity within their work.
With the Pledge, Keychange offers an effective tool and tailored support to increase representation throughout the music world. This year, we have launched our Pledge Action plan, which calls for four points: Going beyond gender, calls for urgent action, calls on the global music community to get involved, and highlights the role and work of education and activism in achieving these goals.
Our May 2023 Pledge report, Keychange – Working Towards Gender Balance in the Music Industry, clearly indicates that there is both a need and a desire for the industry to adopt a more intersectional approach to build on networks of solidarity and achieve improvements for women and gender-diverse artists but alongside male-identifying partners in order to heal the current status quo and restore an approach that is more humanist and in tune with the nature of beings on our planet.
If the arrangement of music fashions societies, then now is the time to seek more harmony, melody, and rhythm to orchestrate a safer, less dominant, and less patriarchal musical environment for humankind both on and off stages.
Christina Hazboun is Keychange project manager, UK, at PRS Foundation
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
There are still significant gaps in representation
Christina Hazboun explains how Keychange offers an effective tool and tailored support to increase representation
16 Jan 2024
Music is a tool for the creation and consolidation of times, spaces, thoughts, and emotions and therefore has the power to articulate many layers of our societies, with all their diversity and colourfulness.
Yet this rich multiplicity does not always manifest in what we hear whether we are talking about the representation of different genders; different racial and ethnic backgrounds; or different socio-economic strata and disabilities. This is where Keychange plays a pivotal role.
Having started in 2016 following a report on the dire representation of women within the music industries, Keychange embarked on an ambitious project to amend this representational gap, through a motley of tools.
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Keychange is a global network and movement working towards a total restructure of the music industry in reaching full gender equality.
We are blessed to have partners collaborating with us from 11 different European countries, in addition to Canada, [who are all] working proactively to make this change. This year, we have expanded further, founding the Keychange U.S. branch.
The latest Music Industry study from Believe, TuneCore, and Luminate, titled Be The Change: Gender Equality in the Music Industry, indicates that cisgender men are paid more than others in the music industry, whereas the sixth annual University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, which was funded by Spotify, states that the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart increased from 28.7% in 2022 to a total of 30%.
There are still significant gaps in representation of women and gender diverse artists in the industry, where only 14% of songwriters on the chart were shown in the report to be women, while women producers made up only 3.4% of all producers, with only one declared nonbinary producer.
Gender identities are varied, and the current designations do not necessarily encompass them all. They do not encompass the multitude of identities each individual holds either, and this prompts the question: how do we go about creating safer and more inclusive spaces to embrace the multitudes within our musical sphere?
At Keychange, we chose to do so through a number of approaches, one of which is an annual participant programme that supports 74 artists and innovators in showcasing their talent and knowledge through the network of our partner festivals, but also by receiving mentorship from our partners at Shesaid.so. Throughout the year, the participants get to network and build on their capacities, knowledge, and experience in what we constantly strive to call a safe space.
As the TuneCore report shows, 34% of women in the industry reported experiencing sexual harassment, while 62% of nonbinary persons felt some form of discrimination based on age. We have therefore chosen to share our Code of Conduct with our partners and participants, which also includes an incident reporting form for our team to look into any concerns.
The mechanisms of dealing with cases of bullying, harassment, and discrimination within the music industries are still nascent, and therefore, we should all work together to foster collaborative efforts to nurture spaces free of any form of aggression.
A trait much needed especially during times of extreme violence. On a broader industry level, we have also been working with over 650 pledge signatories from around the world who have taken the Keychange Pledge to increase diversity within their work.
With the Pledge, Keychange offers an effective tool and tailored support to increase representation throughout the music world. This year, we have launched our Pledge Action plan, which calls for four points: Going beyond gender, calls for urgent action, calls on the global music community to get involved, and highlights the role and work of education and activism in achieving these goals.
Our May 2023 Pledge report, Keychange – Working Towards Gender Balance in the Music Industry, clearly indicates that there is both a need and a desire for the industry to adopt a more intersectional approach to build on networks of solidarity and achieve improvements for women and gender-diverse artists but alongside male-identifying partners in order to heal the current status quo and restore an approach that is more humanist and in tune with the nature of beings on our planet.
If the arrangement of music fashions societies, then now is the time to seek more harmony, melody, and rhythm to orchestrate a safer, less dominant, and less patriarchal musical environment for humankind both on and off stages.
Christina Hazboun is Keychange project manager, UK, at PRS Foundation
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.