Report on Gender Equality in the Music Industry: A Sustainable Development Goals Perspective

The global music industry serves as a significant cultural and economic force. However, its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), remains a critical area for examination. To provide empirical data for this analysis, Chartmetric has launched the “Make Music Equal” initiative, a comprehensive project designed to track and report on artist identity and representation.

This initiative directly supports the monitoring of sustainable development through three core components:

• Publicly Available Dataset: A free, accessible database of over 1 million artist pronouns, providing a foundational tool for researchers and policymakers to track progress on SDG 5.
• State of the Industry Tracker: A live dashboard offering real-time data on diversity, enabling continuous assessment of efforts to reduce inequalities (SDG 10).
• Artist Identification Tool: A mechanism to verify artist pronoun data, ensuring accuracy in reporting and accountability, which is fundamental to building strong and inclusive institutions (SDG 16).

Methodology: Quantifying Equality to Advance SDG 5

The Pronoun Dataset

The initiative utilizes a data-driven methodology, collecting pronouns that artists and their teams publicly share in biographies on digital platforms. This approach avoids assigning gender and instead relies on self-identification. The resulting database of over 1 million pronouns is used to analyze distribution across genres, charts, and career stages, offering a clear metric to identify where gender disparities persist and where interventions are needed to achieve SDG 5.

The 2025 Report Analysis

The 2025 report leverages this dataset to assess the current state of gender equity across the music ecosystem. While acknowledging that pronouns are an imperfect proxy for gender identity, this analysis represents a crucial and measurable step toward understanding and rectifying the inequalities that hinder sustainable development in the creative economy.

Key Findings: State of Gender Representation (SDG 5)

Industry-Wide Pronoun Distribution

An analysis of over 728,000 solo artists reveals a significant imbalance, posing a direct challenge to achieving SDG 5. The data indicates:

• 79% of solo artists use he/him pronouns.
• 18% use she/her pronouns.
• 3% use they/them or other pronouns.

Representation Among Top-Tier Artists

Among the industry’s most influential artists, there are signs of positive change. The representation of women in the top 100 artists by peak Chartmetric score has increased from 26% in 2020 to 33% in 2024. While a gap remains, this growth signals a gradual shift toward the targets of SDG 5 at the highest echelons of the industry.

Career Stage Analysis and SDG 8

Pronoun distribution varies significantly across career stages, impacting SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) by highlighting unequal opportunities for career progression.

• The percentage of solo artists using she/her pronouns rises from 17% at the “undiscovered” stage to approximately 28% at the “superstar” and “legendary” stages.
• Conversely, artists using they/them pronouns see their representation decline by nearly 5% across these stages, indicating significant barriers to career advancement for nonbinary individuals.

This suggests that while the industry entry points are diversifying, systemic barriers continue to affect equitable career progression for women and nonbinary artists.

Sector-Specific Analysis: Reducing Inequalities (SDG 10)

Media Sync Placements: Film, Television, and Gaming

The use of music in media reveals stark contrasts in gender representation, a key indicator for SDG 10.

• Television: Shows relative balance, with music from solo men (29%) and solo women (26%) used at nearly equal rates.
• Film: Displays a wider gap, with tracks from solo men (35%) used more than twice as often as those from solo women (15%).
• Video Games: Exhibits the most extreme disparity. 49% of featured solo artists are men, while only 6% are women, highlighting a critical area for industry action to reduce inequality.

Live Performance: Concerts and Festivals

The live music sector shows a positive trend. The representation of artists using she/her pronouns at festivals has increased by 3% since 2019. This shift is partly attributed to the economic decline of touring bands, which has created more space on lineups for solo artists, including women and nonbinary acts, thereby advancing the goals of SDG 5.

Track Releases

A nearly 8% decrease in tracks released by bands has opened opportunities for solo artists. This has resulted in a 2% rise in releases from solo female artists and a 5% rise from solo male artists, reflecting a structural shift that is slowly reshaping opportunities in the industry.

Global and Genre Disparities: A Focus on SDG 10

Representation by Country

The report highlights significant global disparities in achieving gender equality, a core focus of SDG 10.

• Taiwan shows the smallest gender gap among solo artists, with 29% more men than women.
• Bangladesh demonstrates the largest gap at 83%, indicating severe regional challenges to achieving SDG 5.

Radio Airplay by Genre

Genre-specific analysis reveals entrenched biases. Men continue to dominate airplay in genres like country and hip-hop. However, women are leading in R&B and soul, receiving up to 11 million more plays than male artists. This success demonstrates that genre-specific cultural shifts can drive progress toward gender equality.

Global Chart Performance

Female artists are achieving significant success on global charts, contributing to their economic empowerment (SDG 8). The United States leads with 13 female artists reaching No. 1 on Spotify’s Top 50 chart, followed closely by the United Arab Emirates (10), Ukraine (9), and Saudi Arabia (8). This global success, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East, underscores the growing international influence of female artists.

Social Audience and Economic Empowerment (SDG 8)

Analysis of social media demographics reveals that female fans are a dominant force, supporting the careers of both male and female top artists. This engagement is a critical driver of career momentum and economic success in the digital era. The strength of female fandom culture is a powerful force for empowerment, directly contributing to the economic and visibility goals inherent in SDG 5 and SDG 8.

Conclusion: Data as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development

Summary of Findings

The data presents a complex picture of progress and persistent challenges in aligning the music industry with the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Challenge to SDG 5: Male artists represent 79% of the dataset, dominating nearly every sector.
• Progress on SDG 5: Women are gaining visibility at top career levels, reflecting positive cultural shifts.
• Gap in SDG 10: Nonbinary representation is stagnant or declining, indicating a failure to ensure inclusivity for all.
• Structural Shifts and SDG 8: The decline of bands is creating new economic opportunities for solo acts.
• Fandom and SDG 8: Female fan engagement is a key driver of economic success and empowerment for top artists.

The Role of Metadata in SDG Monitoring

Pronoun data is an essential tool for accountability. It equips the industry, policymakers, and the public with the means to track progress toward SDG 5 and SDG 10. By encouraging artists to own their identities, this data fosters a clearer understanding of who is shaping culture and provides the foundation for building the effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions (SDG 16) necessary for a sustainable and equitable future in music.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

SDG 5: Gender Equality

This is the most prominent SDG in the article. The entire report by Chartmetric is dedicated to “address the current state of gender equity across different sectors in music.” It analyzes disparities in visibility and representation between artists based on their pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them), which serves as a proxy for gender identity. The article explicitly mentions its goal is to highlight “the industry’s gender disparities and identify where improvements are most needed.”

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

The article directly addresses inequality by examining the representation of different groups (male, female, and nonbinary artists) within the music industry. It goes further by analyzing these inequalities across different countries, stating, “Taiwan leads as the country with the smallest gender gap among solo artists—29% more men than women—while Bangladesh sits at the opposite end, with a striking 83% gap.” This aligns with the goal of reducing inequalities within and among countries.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

The music industry is a significant part of the creative economy. The article discusses disparities in career progression and economic opportunities. It analyzes representation “By Career Stage,” noting that the percentage of artists using she/her pronouns increases from “17% at undiscovered to around 28% for superstar and legendary.” It also examines economic opportunities like sync placements in TV, movies, and games, and performances at concerts and festivals, all of which are crucial for an artist’s livelihood and career growth.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The article highlights the importance of data and collaboration for achieving equality. The “Make Music Equal” initiative itself is a tool for monitoring progress, which is a key aspect of SDG 17. Specifically, it points to the creation of a “publicly available dataset” and a “live dashboard” to track diversity. The article also notes that the report was “produced by Chartmetric and reviewed and distributed by Stacker,” demonstrating a partnership to collect, analyze, and disseminate data to drive change.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. SDG 5: Gender Equality

   • Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. The article directly relates to this by measuring the participation of female and nonbinary artists in the music industry, which is a key part of public and economic life. It tracks their presence in highly visible areas like “Top Charts,” festival lineups, and as “superstar and legendary” artists.
   • Target 5.c: Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels. The Chartmetric report and its dataset are presented as tools that can inform such policies within the industry. The article states that “Pronoun data holds massive potential and equips people with tools to track where progress is happening—and where it isn’t,” which is a prerequisite for developing effective policies.

2. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

   • Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. The article’s core purpose is to track the economic and social inclusion of artists based on their gender identity (proxied by pronouns). It analyzes their inclusion across genres, charts, career stages, and countries.
   • Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome… The data presented in the article explicitly shows “inequalities of outcome.” For example, it highlights that in video game syncs, “49% of featured solo artists are men, while only 6% are women,” demonstrating a clear inequality of opportunity and outcome in that sector.

3. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

   • Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men… and equal pay for work of equal value. The article implies a lack of equal opportunity for “decent work” by showing how representation for female and nonbinary artists is lower at every career stage. The disparity in visibility at festivals, on the radio, and in sync deals directly impacts an artist’s ability to achieve productive employment and build a sustainable career.

4. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

   • Target 17.18: …increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts. The Chartmetric initiative is a direct answer to this target. It has created a “free and fully accessible database of more than 1 million artist pronouns across the world” and provides a “live dashboard,” making high-quality, timely, and disaggregated data (by pronoun, country, genre, etc.) available to the public.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, the article is filled with specific quantitative indicators used to measure gender representation and disparity in the music industry. These can be directly mapped to the identified targets.

• Proportion of artists by pronoun: The overall breakdown of the 728,000 solo acts in the database is a primary indicator: “79% of these solo acts use he/him pronouns, 18% use she/her pronouns and 3% use they/them and other pronouns.”
• Representation in top tiers: The percentage of women among the “top 100 artists by peak Chartmetric score” serves as an indicator of success at the highest level. The article notes this increased from “26% in 2020” to “33%.”
• Representation across career stages: The article provides the percentage of artists using she/her pronouns at different career levels, such as “17% at undiscovered to around 28% for superstar and legendary.” This measures career progression equality.
• Representation in media (Syncs): The article gives a percentage breakdown of artists featured in TV, movies, and video games. For example, in video games, the disparity is measured as “49% of featured solo artists are men, while only 6% are women.”
• Representation in live music: The change in the number of “she/her artists performing at festivals” is used as an indicator, which has “risen by 3% since the pre-pandemic era.”
• Representation by country: The “gender gap” is calculated for different countries, providing a comparative indicator of inequality. Examples include Taiwan’s “29% more men than women” versus Bangladesh’s “striking 83% gap.”
• Representation in radio airplay: The disparity in radio plays is measured by genre. For instance, in R&B and soul, women receive “as many as 11 million times more plays than artists using he/him pronouns,” indicating success in specific genres.
• Number of chart-topping female artists by country: The count of female artists who reached #1 on Spotify charts is used as an indicator of global success, with the U.S. leading with “13 female artists.”

4. Create a table with three columns titled ‘SDGs, Targets and Indicators” to present the findings from analyzing the article.

Source: boston25news.com