By Madison Moll
Within the past 2 weeks, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s newest report entitled “New report shows diversity on the charts, but not in executive ranks of music companies” highlighted some not-so-shocking statistics about women in music industry roles, specifically in higher-up executive positions.
The study examined executive diversity in three ways: among CEOs and presidents across 70 major and independent companies, across senior management teams at nine major music companies, and in executive roles across 119 companies from the VP-level and above in different industry categories.
Graphic creation credit to Instagram account @AMPLIFYHERVOICE
As an artist management company run mostly by women, it is interesting to see such little representation in other large areas of the industry. Covering 4,060 executives from the vice president level to C-Suite roles across 119 companies and industry categories including record labels (reported 11.7% women in executive roles), publishing (reported 22.2% of women in executive roles), streaming (reported 7.1% women in executive roles), live music (reported 6.7% women in executive roles), and radio (reported 20% women in executive roles) (See image above).
Image credited to Annenberg USC Research
Next in other major positions, amongst 70 major and independent music companies, only 13.9% of the people in the roles of CEO, Chairmen, and Presidents were reported to be women. This is more of a median statistic compared to the previous findings in the five different industry categories.
Figure 2 image credited to Annenberg USC Research
And finally, data provided from 9 major music companies broke down and reported their percentages for women in leadership positions in areas such as Music Groups (31.6%), Radio & Streaming (23.4%), and Live Music & Concert Promotion (40.6%). The highest being Live Music & Concert Promotion is a step in the right direction for inclusion and equality, but there still are miles required to get to full inclusion of women in music industry leadership roles
As women and advocates for women’s equality in executive roles in the music industry, it is crucial for you to let your voice be heard and to speak out about inequality in these roles so that we all can see change!