LOST IN THE MIX

After finishing all the hard work, crunching the data and compiling the results—all while dancing backwards in heels—Fix the Mix has released the results of its first-ever study on gender representation in the music industry and we’d like to take this opportunity to mansplain the results for you. However, due to staffing shortages, our mansplaining needs are currently being outsourced to women who are smarter and better educated than us.

The new report, entitled Lost in the Mix created in conjunction with We Are Moving the Needle and Jaxsta, builds on recent studies revealing that industrywide, a mere 2.8% of music producers and engineers are women and non-binary people.

The Fix the Mix report drills down into 2022 data from 1,128 top songs of 2022 and spills the tea on inclusion rates by musical genre to reveal disparities in rates of inclusion for women and non-binary people varies widely by genre.

Metal proved to be the biggest fête de la saucisses, with 0.0% inclusion of women and non-binary folks in key technical roles; rap and Christian/gospel trail closely at 0.7% and 0.8% respectively. Electronic music proved tops in egalitarianism with 17.6% of producer credits attributed to women and non-binary individuals. Folk and Americana came in second at 16.4%.

The Fix the Mix report also found higher concentrations of women and non-binary people credited in assistant roles as opposed to more senior production and engineering capacities, which is indicative of an industry-wide lack of advancement opportunities (rather than a lack of qualified candidates available to fill more senior spots).

Authors of the study are issuing a call to major labels to extend DEI initiatives beyond full-time employees to include the hiring of more women and non-binary producers. Words were not minced.

“This study confirms what I’ve known after spending decades behind the board in the recording studio – women are not being given the same opportunities as men in production and engineering roles,” said Fix the Mix co-author, GRAMMY Award-winning mastering engineer and founder of We Are Moving The Needle, Emily Lazar.

You can check out all the piping hot tea from the Fix the Mix report at wearemovingtheneedle.org