Coalition of 50K under-represented creators calls for addition of gender ID to all music data
A coalition of organizations serving women and other under-represented creators and music industry professionals have formed the Gender Identification Initiative to improve how music data is collected and analyzed.
“complete and accurate data is vital to the success of all organizations that represent disenfranchised people in music”
Collectively the 10 groups in Gender Identification Initiative (listed below) represent 50,000 female creators.
Since good data analysis begins with data collection, the Gender Identification Initiative is starting with a call for the two largest repositories of music data – The MLC and DDEX – to include gender identification of all of the creators involved with any single or album.
Under the proposal, at initial registration all creators involved would identify themselves with these pronouns:
- she/her
- he/him
- they/them
- other ________________
- prefer not to identify
“If we are going to make a change in the music industry and make it more inclusive and diverse, we must be able to identify the people creating each song and master,” the group wrote in an open letter to the MLC and DDEX, “If we do this, we will be able to analyze gender diversity within the population of the industry that is releasing music, charting, garnering awards, getting traction in film/television/video games/advertising, etc. This will facilitate our collective understanding of the role that gender plays in the music industry.”
The group has also offered to facilitate the planning, promoting, and execution of the effort in part because “complete and accurate data is vital to the success of all organizations that represent disenfranchised people in music.”
The groups that make up the Gender Identification Initiative include:
- Asian American Collective – led by Grace Lee
- Change the Conversation – led by Leslie Fram, Tracy Gershon and Beverly Keel
- Diversify the Stage – led by Noelle Scaggs
- Gender Amplified, Inc. – led by Ebonie Smith
- Maestra Music – led by Georgia Stitt
- She is the Music – led by Alicia Keys, Jody Gerson, Ann Mincieli and Sam Kirby
- Shesaid.so – led by Andreea Magdalina
- We Are Moving the Needle – led by Emily Lazar
- Women in CTRL – led by Nadia Khan
- Women in Music- led by Nicole Barsalona
