A new report on U.K. radio airplay finds that male artists counted for 44% of tracks in the Top 50 while female acts took a 20% share in the year between August 2020 to 2021,.
It’s a slight improvement from 2019-2020: male acts are down 7%, while the share of female acts has risen by 1%. There were 34% mixed-gender collaborations, which is up 4% year-on-year, and 2% non-binary acts.
The ethnicity stats are as follows: 60% white artists; 36% white and POC collaborations; and 4% POC. Artists and bands signed to major labels counted for 96% of the Top 50.
Behind the scenes, male songwriters and composers counted for 76.4% of those credited in the Top 50 and female songwriters and composers counted for 23.3%. Non-binary songwriters and composers, which was one entry, Sam Smith, took a 0.4% share.
