These organizations are taking action to expedite equality and empower women to step up, fight back and build a better future for all of us. The music business has a long way to go towards reaching full equality for all gender expressions, but these badass, women-led organizations are doing their part in changing the future of the music industry. Check them out, do your part, and get involved! ⚡️🚺
Women Led Music Organizations You Should Join Right Now
We Make Noise
Founded by Erin Barra, We Make Noise is a music education platform connecting teaching artists to the creative youth in Brooklyn and beyond. They’re also a global non-profit that harnesses the power of music and technology to advance gender equity through training, community building, career development experiences and more to cultivate limitless potential for those looking to succeed in the music industry, no matter their background.
Reservoir Media
Reservoir Media is an independent music company based in New York City and with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Toronto, London, and Abu Dhabi. It is the first female-founded and led publicly traded independent music company in the U.S. Founded as a family-owned music publisher in 2007, the company has grown to represent over 150,000 copyrights and 36,000 master recordings with titles dating as far back as 1900, and hundreds of #1 releases worldwide. Reservoir founder and CEO, Golnar Khosrowshahi was named to Billboard’s 2020 Power List, as well as named one of Billboard’s top 100 most powerful female executives for 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2021, she was named Billboard’s Executive of the Year.
We Are Moving The Needle
@emilylazarlodge
Founded by Grammy-winning mastering engineer, Emily Lazar, We Are Moving The Needle is a nonprofit organization supporting all women recording industry professionals, audio engineers and producers, working to create measurable change by empowering women in the recording and professional audio industry with the education, equipment and the mentorship needed to succeed at the highest levels.
They provide resources and support for both those at the very start of their education as well as those currently in their recording and production careers battling the overwhelmingly male-dominated landscape of the industry.
Audiofemme
Since 2012, Audiofemme has consistently sought to uplift the voices of female and non-binary music writers and to approach music and culture criticism from an intersectional feminist perspective.
Music Production for Women
Music Production for Women aims to give female musicians the skills necessary to take on the music industry with confidence and help and guide them through every step of the process through providing education, community support, visible role models and encouragement. In the last 2 and a half years MPW has delivered classes to thousands of students across numerous countries across the globe.
WOMEN SOUND OFF
WOMEN SOUND OFF is an Oakland-based intersectional platform founded and run by women. They’re a platform celebrating creative women from all industries and walks of life, focused on empowering, educating, and connecting women throughout their creative entrepreneur journeys. From music and media to tech and art, they work to create powerful and safe spaces for women to form alliances and have their voices heard.
She Shreds Media
Fabi Reyna (She Shreds Media) 📷@sacredsoundlibrary
Mexican-American queer musician and badass human, Fabi Reyna founded She Shreds Media as a community-driven, comprehensive answer to guitar culture and music media. Dedicated to women & gnc guitarists and bassists, their mission is to educate, empower, and inspire people through unexplored musical and cultural landscapes. Their vision is to continuously refine, redefine, and reimagine the possibilities of how music connects us, ensuring an inclusive and accessible music community 100% of the time.
Women in Music
Women in Music is an organization with a mission to advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition. Their countless events celebrate the female contribution to the music industry and aims to strengthen the ties between the two for a better future for women in music. WIM believes all voices are welcome in the conversation about equality.
By joining WIM, you’ll get access to in-person networking and educational workshops all over the world, online networking groups, directories, newsletters, forums and more to help you directly interact with the WIM community. Additionally, WIM provides resources to thousands of women in need in various stages of their careers.
Change the Conversation
Founded by three successful music executives, Leslie Fram, Tracy Gershon and Beverly Keel, Change the Conversation fights gender inequality in the music industry by providing support, education and a community of like-minded female artists and executives all working towards the same goal of equality.
“Our mission is to raise awareness and create change so that more female voices will be heard in country music. Our goal is to have more women played on radio stations, digital streaming platforms, signed to record and publishing deals and offered high-profile opportunities, such as more slots on tours and festivals and performing on TV and awards shows.”
shesaid.so
Established back in 2014, shesaid.so is a global network of women in the music industry. Made up of women from record labels, bookings, artist management, tech, creative and more, this organization curates and speaks on panels discussing the importance of the movement with hopes to inspire anyone who will listen. Additionally, shesaid.so challenges the industry’s outdated framework with their Alternative Power 100 Music List and works towards increasing the number of women who progress in their careers.
“shesaid.so started as and continues to be a space where members can openly ask for advice, share jobs and events, announce new projects and build community. There are currently over 3,000 international members in the global community and an additional 10,000 members across our 15 local chapters.”
Women of Substance
The Women of Substance Podcast features music by Female Indie Artists every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In addition to the podcast, their website provides amazing resources for musicians. From industry connections to industry contacts and websites to help you grow your fanbase and learn new skills, they’ve got it all.
The Women’s International Music Network
Founded in 2012 by Laura B. Whitmore, The Women’s International Music Network brings together women from all facets of the music industry and produces events, creates opportunities for performance and networking and works to bring the conversation around diversity in the industry into the forefront. They work to create a hub to connect women in all facets of the music industry and works to expose role models, events and educational opportunities that focus on women in music.
Jasmine Kok, She Knows Tech
She Knows Tech
Founded by Jasmine Kok and Co-Founder Meghan Smyth, She Knows Tech is an organization that aims to close the industry’s gender gap through highlighting and celebrating women in music tech. Jasmine is incredibly passionate about gender diversity and equity in the music industry, specifically in regard to representation in recording studios, and has worked to support female and non-binary producers, engineers and technologists in building successful careers in music. Meghan is co-founder of SKT, a software engineer and audio engineer, and her passion lies at the intersection of music, visual art, and technology.
Together, they channel waves of trained women into technical roles in the music industry and dispel the notion that there are not enough female professionals in music production and technology. They dream of working in a music industry that is flooded with female-identifying producers, engineers & tech performers, and so do we!
FutureFemaleSounds
FutureFemaleSounds is all about empowering girls through sound and action. Their mission is to highlight female DJs, promote female role models, and introduce young women to DJ’ing as a medium of artistic expression, self empowerment and professionalization through DJ workshops, cultural management masterclasses, and preparing participants to work with sounds in the future.
SoundGirls
SoundGirls is all about inspiring and empowering the next generation of women in the music industry. Working to inspire young women to enter the realm of professional audio and music production, this organization is all about providing a place for women in music to connect, network and share experiences and advice with others in the industry.
“SoundGirls.Org supports women working in professional audio and music production by highlighting their success and providing a place for them to connect, network, and share advice. SoundGirls.Org provides support, career development, and tools to help those working in the field advance in their career.”
Women of Color in the Arts
Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) is a national, grassroots service organization dedicated to creating transformational change in the arts sector. We do this by championing racial equity as a basic tenet of eliminating systemic disparities in the field and by providing a platform to help strengthen and amplify the voice and visibility of women of color. By working to fortify leadership and reinforce a world where everyone holds shared power at the decision-making table, WOCA aims to cultivate a just and inclusive field with the intent of creating equitable systems for all to prosper inside and outside of the arts.
Keychange
Keychange is a movement fighting for a sustainable music industry. They support talented but underrepresented artists and encourage organizations to take a pledge for gender equality. Selected by industry experts as future leaders, the new cohort of artists and music industry professionals will take part in Keychange’s year-long talent development program which provides women and gender minority participants with the skills and opportunities they need to progress to the next stage in their career.
Femme House
FEMME HOUSE creates opportunities for women, gender-expansive, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ creatives in the technical and behind the scenes areas of music. They are developing the future producers, mixers, engineers, DJs, artists, and executives of the industry by providing education and scholarships, cultivating community, furthering visual representation, and leveraging our platform to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.
In Conclusion…
We’re in this together. Regardless of your gender, everyone should be concerned about the representation of women in this industry. Equal representation affects not only the women in this business, but the quality of the industry as a whole. Luckily, organizations like these are working hard to make a change. Make sure you’re doing your part to do the same!
Industry professionals and artists alike utilize music analytics tools to help them further understand their place in the market. Knowing where you stand and where you have room to grow is the key to excelling in this industry. To help you truly understand your stats, here are some of the best tools out there to guide you in the right direction…
Best Streaming Music Analytics Tools for Artists
SymphonicMS
If you’re a Symphonic Distribution client, you get access to some very helpful music analytics tools right in SymphonicMS that track key information from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer,Pandora, TikTok, YouTube and more. Under the Analytics menu, you can access pages that provide data like:
Up-to-date streaming data from Spotify and Apple Music, with detailed breakdowns by artist, track, release, territory, and partners.
Daily iTunes and Beatport download counts and overall download trends.
Important Beatport statistics, such as subscriber counts and charting songs.
Navigate to this feature by clicking on Analytics ► Streams from the menu.
The landing page provides a catalog level view of performance across your entire catalog, broken down by several dimensions, such as Partner, Artist, and Territory. — You can also view breakdowns of an individual artist’s streams by clicking on them from the landing page. On the artist’s page, you’ll see breakdowns of their streams by several key dimensions, including partners, track, playlist placements, and many more!
All of these pages can be easily leveraged to help answer critical questions, such as how new releases are performing, where your audience is located, and which platforms your music is performing best on.
To access analytics for TikTok in the SMS, all you have to do is click on Analytics -> TikTok.
The landing page provides a catalog-level view of performance across the entire catalog on a given date range that you can change. Here, you can access details like engagement and Artist, Track, and Territory Analytics.
This tool makes it easier for creators to understand the TikTok metrics that really matter and helps maximize the impact of their future TikTok marketing campaigns. It delivers comprehensive and easy-to-read metrics on how many videos have been created using an artist’s music as well as how many views, likes, comments and shares the video generated. // To learn more about this, check out this article.
SoundCharts
SoundCharts offers social media data from six different platforms, playlist data from three different streaming platforms, and charts from seven different social and streaming platforms to give you actionable music streaming data, all in one place. Where’s this data coming from? Spotify, Apple, Shazam, YouTube, Deezer, Radio, SoundCloud, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Songkick, to say the least.
Spot On Track
Spot On Track is an analytics platform that lets you track stats from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Shazam, TikTok and more. You can also see the current chart positions of your music, current playlists you’ve landed on, previous playlists, all your releases in each platform and more in an easy to navigate dashboard. Plus, it also offers radio play stats, retrieving all data directly from APIs. Although it’s pricey ($299/year), you can try it for free for 14 days first to see if you like it.
WARM
Get solid proof of your radio airplay to easily collect your royalties, discover where your fans are, and new emerging markets with WARM. With this platform, you can cover when and where your music is being played in real-time at the market’s most competitive price. By monitoring radio stations worldwide, WARM tracks your songs’ airplay in real-time in order to provide you with valuable insights that will help you take your music career to the next level. They also provide artists like you with the tools you need to improve your marketing and promotion strategies, and even accelerate your royalty collection.
Spotify for Artists
The best part about Spotify for Artists is their absolute count of artist’s streams, listeners, and saves. This analytics platform provides an easy-to-understand breakdown of playlist categories (algorithmic, editorial, and listener generated) and absolute counts for listeners and streams of an artist’s tracks on those playlists.
Detailed insights into streaming metrics like these are key for artists and their teams in this increasingly data-driven industry where Spotify reigns supreme.
Chartmetric
Chartmetric is an OG which gives you a bit of everything from every platform. With it, you get analytics and data from Spotify, Apple, Shazam, YouTube, Amazon, Deezer, Radio, SoundCloud, TikTok, Wikipedia, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Beatport, and more all in one place. Depending on if you utilize their Free or all-access Premium tier, you can get whatever you need depending on what’s most important to you. With Chartmetric, you can also do additional things like:
Track current and historical playlist adds on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and YouTube.
Understand who your audience is and where they are in the world with audience demographics.
Global Digital Artist Ranking with Cross-Platform Performance (CPP), their proprietary global digital artist ranking that lets you measure artist performance across 16 streaming and social media platforms and metrics.
ForTunes
ForTunes is an easy-to-use mobile app for music data analytics on the go, drawing data from Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It gives you basic streaming and social media tracking results, just like the other platforms we’ve mentioned in this post, but having it all at your fingertips with the mobile app is life changing for artists and teams on the go.
Apple Music for Artists
With Apple Music for Artists, artists can keep track of the volume of their streaming plays on Apple Music and album/song sales on iTunes, all within a data set that updates every day.
In addition, artists can:
Gain insight into how specific songs/albums are performing.
See how their fans are growing in international markets in over 100 countries.
Find out which locations they’re the most popular.
Plan future shows.
Specifically tailor set-lists for fans in each location.
Viberate
Viberate offers streaming analytics, airplay and social media monitoring, professional charts and artist comparison, industry trends and audience demographics, smart talent discovery, and so much more. Even cooler, this platform has tutorials, webinars, guides, blog posts, and more to guide you through the platform and get the most out of your efforts.
YouTube for Artists
YouTube for Artists offers an easy to use dashboard in their YouTube Studio with real-time analytics to help you monitor your audience, global reach and performance across the entire YouTube ecosystem.
The Overview tab shows you a summary of how your channel and videos are performing. The key metrics card shows your views, watch time, subscribers, and estimated revenue (If you’re in the YouTube Partner Program).In this tab, you’ll also see reports for:
Typical performance // A comparison to your latest video to your channel’s typical performance.
Top videos // Your recent videos ranked by views.
Realtime // Your performance over the last 48 hours or 60 minutes.
Latest videos // Your performance from your 10 latest videos.
Stories // Your performance over the last 7 days from your latest Stories.
When it comes to developing your audience, it’s important to understand which aspects of your strategy are working for you and which parts are falling flat. Having access to data that shows you where your streams are coming from, which streaming platforms are performing the best, and even which social media apps are creating the most engagement are all things to pay close attention to.
With services like these, it’s no longer a guessing game. You have concrete data to back up your every move. Use it wisely!
When it comes to marketing, independent musicians typically have 2 choices: Either hire a marketing agency, or do it yourself. Doing it yourself takes lots of trial and error, which means time and money wasted, but hiring an agency means burning through tens of thousands of dollars before you may even see results… That’s where a digital ads platform like Found.ee changes the game. Whether you’re a DIY musician who’s new to the ad game or a music marketer with tons of releases to manage, here’s how Found.ee can help.
Why You Should Try Found.ee Ads as an Independent Musician
Why should you try another ad platform you haven’t used before?
Diversifying your ad strategy allows you to reach a broader audience, with different demographics – it could help you reach untapped markets for new fan growth. It gives you a leg up on other music marketers who stick with the same strategy, targeting the same users – improving your marketing performance while also lowering your ad costs due to less competition.
With the way that advertising works, repeated exposure is what compels new fans to check out your music or buy your tickets – splitting up your budget between different ad platforms enhances the visibility of your music and reinforces awareness. And splitting up your ad budget with new ad platforms allow you to better calculate what works for you – allowing you more options to optimize and spend your budget more efficiently.
How does it work?
With the Found.ee Managed Ads Program (MAP), artists can now book high-quality digital ads on websites like Pitchfork, Complex, Billboard, and Rolling Stone – for a fraction of the cost of hiring a marketing agency. Found.ee’s ad experts design your ad and then set it up for you, to generate the most results possible with their expertise; all you’ll need to do is submit a simple form.
Experts will book your ad based on your goals, monitor your ads to make sure they are performing well and share your results in real time. They can even help you design your ad creative itself – including playable banners that feature your music. Found.ee ads allow you to get your ads up on to premium music websites like Pitchfork and Complex, on streaming content like HBO MAX, and more.
It’s quick and easy; if you’ve set up ads anywhere else before, you can get your first found.ee ad launched within a couple of minutes. That means more results, more awareness, and more fans. 🔥
In the ever-growing world of entertainment publicity, reaching thousands of listeners on your upcoming releases require a unique plan. Until your brand is recognized worldwide (i.e. Beyonce), it simply doesn’t make sense to spend the majority of your budget on recording new assets just to release them to the public without a solid strategy. Even so, a plan made up of basic press pitching might not always do the trick to build the worthwhile and engaged fanbase you’re looking for. Thinking out of the box is becoming more important in every quarter as we progress into the age of digital streaming and internet consumption. As a listener, a few Fridays contain enough new music releases to last a lifetime, so how can yours make the cut?
We’ve put together a list of eye-catching tactics to build buzz and excitement around your new release.
1) Memorabilia
This begins with another incredibly important part of music marketing: developing a cohesive brand. Actively participating in the way your fans view your band as a whole is a required stepping stone before you tackle this marketing strategy. Memorabilia in this instance is something that’s brand-specific but still wide-reaching. Developing these assets starts with remembering memorabilia that influenced your childhood. Did you have a sweet set of Hot Wheels with crazy turns? Do you wish you still had that glitter lipgloss from your first school dance? Gather ideas from yourself and your band, create a list, and then brainstorm together how you can turn those ideas into marketing products using your brand instead of releasing yet another t-shirt with your logo on it. Besides being fun and interesting, most of these things become relics that fans will hold onto for a very long time.
A few great examples of bands harnessing this method are the band Sleep On It creating pillowcases that read “Sleep On It” with their logo, Dance Gavin Dance releasing a “Strawberry Milkshake” limited release beer, The Story So Far creating a viewfinder with photos taken by the band, and the list goes on.
2) Limited Edition Prints/Presses
It’s no secret that vinyl has made a triumphant comeback. For many artists, vinyl is the only type of physical copies they’ll release. Some even go as far as releasing cassettes for a real pre-2000’s feeling. Just by themselves, vinyl and cassettes are great ways to release an album since they clearly outlive any other music trend, so use that to your advantage and create limited editions and/or collectors editions! For those who already love to collect vinyl and cassettes, different sleeves or tape designs is enough reason to buy the same album twice. This strategy can be used in different instances, like in a pre-order bundle, a deluxe post-release album, a “B” side album, etc.
3) Harness Your Local Scene
Remember when we mentioned Dance Gavin Dance crafting up a limited beer? Imagine doing that for your band, with your favorite local brewery or your favorite sandwich shop. Sound cool? It’s actually not the hardest thing to do but requires a long process and a lot of dedication. Many local-run establishments love to support local bands that give back to their community in exciting ways like this! Have an elevator pitch ready and ask to speak to the general manager so you can explain why naming a turkey melt after your band Stale Bread would boost their sales and help promote your upcoming album. Brewing a specific beer involves alcohol laws and actual brewing knowledge (to an extent) but most local breweries will go for it if you can promise the product will move off shelves. Another way to harness your local scene is asking record stores to stock your upcoming release in a local section. If they don’t have one, pitch one!
4) Get Fans and Friends Involved
Your close friends and fans are obviously your biggest supporters, and they most likely would love to be involved in your band’s success. Ask your friends to help spread the word about your new album by hosting giveaways, build a scavenger hunt that involves clues leading to free release show tickets, create a drinking game that mocks your band, hire your friend to photograph your band, or commission an artist friend to create the album art or a new shirt. There’s nothing better than involving your other creative peers to promote each other’s work!
5) Give Your Release Show a Twist
Most album releases are complimented by a release show, where you perform your new music live for the first time. With the right amount of promotion and ticket sales, this is an exciting way to throw a party for all your hard work! Consider hosting the show at a non-traditional music venue. Years back, Carousel Kings played the first (and last, for good and hysterical reasons) at a Haunted Mill during the Halloween season for a truly unforgettable show. I can’t remember the songs they played but I will never forget that show. Giving your fans a reason to talk about your show, especially your album release show, can improve your future crowd numbers and build buzz.
Part of succeeding in the music industry is continuing to learn every single day. Being a “jack of all trades” is the norm in today’s connected globe, where all information about pretty much anything can be accessed via the internet. The best thing you can possibly do for your band is to learn about every aspect of the music industry and how you can use it for your advantage. With these branding ideas, you have no excuse to not promote your album as hard as you can!
Want to learn how to build a fanbase and improve your skills as an artist from one of the best in the business? Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop offers all of that in their weekly Wednesday workshop. Here’s how to secure your spot for free.
Reserve Your Spot for Modern Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop
Here’s the rundown…
Founder of Modern Musician and host of the Modern Musician Podcast, Michael Walker is hosting an in-depth “fanbase growth workshop” for artists who are ready to level up their music career, and thrive during these challenging times. In this workshop, he’s revealing some of their best techniques that are usually reserved for his $5000+ clients at Modern Musician. This is the first time he’s given away this information for free, and you don’t want to miss out on the valuable insights he has to offer.
“How do I get involved?”
Every Wednesday @ 3PM ET, they offer LIVE training in 3 main topics:
Artistic Identity: Hone in your music brand to give you clarity about who you are as an artist, so you can attract the best-fit audience who will love your music.
Thriving Fanbase: Set up your marketing so we can build your loyal fanbase based on your artistic identity and your strengths.
Revenue Multiplier: Create an automatic monetization system to fund your artist lifestyle so you don’t sacrifice your talent or lose touch with your musical identity.
If you’re interested in tuning in, click this link to register in one-click:
Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a “welcome pack” with all the resources needed to take part in this special, one-time event.
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Want to learn more?
In addition, you may have also heard about the Gold Artist Academy, Modern Musician’s flagship mentoring program. This program is a great resource for artists who are ready to truly commit and step up their game.
Learn more about the program, plus testimonials and additional details, right here.
Job hunting. We’ve all done it, and most of us will continue to have to do it until retirement comes along. Indeed and Glassdoor are great for seeing everything and anything all at once, but what if you’re tired of wasting your time sorting through thousands of unrelated jobs? Believe it or not, there are job sites just for us music biz folks. Here are some of the best music industry job sites to help you land your next job…
9 Music Industry Job Sites To Help You Land Your Next Job
The Digilogue
The Digilogue is a diverse community of creators and industry professionals in music and tech. They curate conversations and programming around industry education, artist discovery content, and a great career resource on their website. Under their Music Careers tab, click on Job Postings, and you’ll find tons of job listings up for grabs. // Check it out for yourself on their website here.
Music Business Worldwide
This site is one of the best resources for anyone looking to broaden their horizons in the music biz. Music Business Jobs is a website for the global music industry to find the best candidates for their open positions. They post openings all over the country, and you can filter results by location, companies, and job type. // Check out what’s available right here.
Doors Open
The world of electronic music is shaped not only by artists and fans, but also by thousands of small businesses, from clubs to booking agents to publishers and promoters. If you’re looking to work in the electronic music scene, this resource is for you. Doors Open is a place for people to connect with companies and projects they believe in, and for independent music companies to find the staff they need to turn ideas into reality. // Check ’em out here.
Shesaid.so
Shesaid.so is a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry. They’re absolutely awesome, and they happen to also provide a very useful job portal tab on their website where you can browse open positions and apply. // Click here to see what’s available.
Music Careers
Music Careers is built for music professionals by music professionals to help you find your next job in the music industry. They post up to date jobs, refresh every 30 days, and give you the ability to refine your search by specific niches within the industry. They even post freelance opportunities, too. // Check out what they’ve got to offer here.
Digital Music News
You may already be a fan of Digital Music News‘ industry articles to keep up to date on the latest news, but have you checked out the jobs tab on their website? There, you can check out music industry jobs from major record labels and streaming services to universities, merchandising companies, startups, and more. // Check it out here.
A2IM
A2IM has their own job board to help you find your perfect position. Whether you’re looking for temporary work, an internship, or full-time, their database can search jobs by keywords and location. // Check out jobs on A2IM here.
Music Jobs
Music Jobs is part of a global publication and online community which brings their subscribers industry opportunities and daily news from the world of film, TV, music and gaming. On their site, you can also sign up and subscribe to emails with job opportunities tailored specifically to what position you’re looking for. // Click here to check out the site and search for jobs.
Entertainment Careers
Entertainmentcareers.net is a great site which features jobs in in Film, Television, Music, Production Companies, Radio, Animation, Acting, Production, PR, Design, and more. Whether you’re interested in the music industry or something adjacent, this is the ultimate place to check. // Browse available jobs on their site here.
