New change project will provide more equal access to the music industry

The project Together for equal access is the music industry's latest initiative to create more equality and well-being in the industry, and two major music foundations are backing the change project. The industry’s latest reporting shows a growing focus on well-being, but a continued skewed gender balance at the top among the commercial actors.

Several studies have quantified the skewed representation, inequality, and dissatisfaction in the music industry. Now the Music Life Partnership for Sustainable Development is bringing the entire industry together in the change program ’Together for equal access’, which has been created with support from the Tuborg Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation.

The change efforts must benefit the professional music scene as a whole, and they focus specifically on inequality and the barriers that women and young people encounter.

Data shows, for example, that only 11 % of Kodak's rights go to women. The latest Figures from Gramex It also shows that there is work to be done to achieve a better gender balance among performing artists. Earlier studies even show that more than every second female musician is unhappy at work.

”The music industry misses out on people who have both talent and the will, but never get to show what they can do. That has to change. It requires companies and organizations to dare to look at their own choices and do something different,” says Sara Indrio, member of the steering group of the Music Industry Partnership and head of the Danish Artist Union.

New industry certification must pave the way for equal access

The project includes a new industry certification that enables organizations to follow the initiatives that the music industry is launching to make the music industry more accessible. Here, companies and organizations commit to documenting their work to promote equal access. Participants must work to break down the barriers that perpetuate problems in areas such as work culture, management, decision-making, and networking.

The change program Together for equal access has become a reality thanks to support from the Tuborg Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation.

”This is an ambitious step for Danish music life. For it is one thing to agree that everyone should have equal opportunities. Something else is to commit to changing the structures and cultures that stand in the way. With an industry certification, we have the opportunity to move from good intentions to documentable changes. It has the potential to move the entire music industry,” says Mathias Findalen Bickersteth, program manager for rhythmic music at the Tuborg Foundation.

Latest figures: Better well-being at work and more women in the top ranks

Over the past three years, the Music Life Partnership has been taking the temperature of work with equality and well-being through data collection. The latest reporting shows that more are working on measurements of the working environment and well-being. The gender balance is good when looking at all the reporting organizations and companies together, but there are significant differences within the industry, and in several commercial operators the gender balance is still skewed.

See the full report.

Across organizations and companies, there are still more men than women at all organizational levels. However, women make up at least 40 % at each level, and the overall distribution thus falls within the 40/60 distribution that is typically considered the target for gender balance. However, the overall picture masks significant differences.

Among the several commercial actors in the report, such as publishers, booking agencies and management companies, men predominate at all organizational levels. Among the labels that have reported, there is almost an equal balance between men and women at the employee level. However, there is an imbalance at higher levels of the organization, where women make up 36 % of the management level, 7 % of the boards of directors and 22 % of the boards of trustees.

Efforts are being made to improve well-being, and more actors than in the past are conducting workplace assessments. 74 percent conduct statutory workplace assessments (APV) at least every three years, a clear increase from 63 percent last year. At the same time, more than one in two companies or organizations conduct other forms of internal well-being measurements at least every three years.

For the first time, the report also documents the partners’ work on preventing and managing cross-border behavior. 72 percent have a formal policy in place regarding employees, while the same applies to 55 percent regarding external partners. Half of them say they work systematically on prevention, and 35 percent work on prevention to a more limited extent or in specific situations.