ACADEMY PUSHES FOR DIVERSITY IN THE RECORDING STUDIO

The Recording Academy is looking to expand opportunities for women in the fields of production and engineering.

Through a new Inclusion Initiative, the organization is calling on entities and individuals responsible for selecting and hiring producers and engineers to commit to making hiring decisions only after considering a slate of candidates that includes at least two women.

It also asks working producers to take into account gender diversity challenges in music’s technical fields when determining who to mentor and prepare for development and advancement opportunities.

The Producer & Engineer Inclusion Initiative, which springs from the Academy’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, is the inaugural action of a larger strategy to address gender inequity in the music industry.

The Academy will create a web page to facilitate the process of identifying working female producers and engineers.

"There is no magic bullet to shift a status quo that has existed for centuries, but we see this initiative as an important step," said Tina Tchen, Chair of the Recording Academy’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and Partner at Buckley LLP. "We aren’t here to tell anyone who to hire, but we have seen repeatedly that the simple act of making sure diverse candidates are always seen and considered makes it more likely that women will get the opportunities they previously have been denied. It’s one step everyone can take that could go a long way to catalyzing important change that is overdue in this industry." More than 200 artists, producers, labels, agencies, management companies and other stakeholders have already signed on to the initiative, among them Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, John Legend and Katy Perry.

"Women deserve as much opportunity as men, and we know this industry has not always been fair. The only way to change these inequities is for us to face it directly and commit to do more," said Common, a Task Force member.