We bring underrepresented genders in the music industry to the main stage!
Keychange is a movement that empowers talented underrepresented genders with training, mentoring, and network support plus conferences and showcasing opportunities at partner festivals. From 2019-2024 Reeperbahn Festival leads the second phase of the initiative Keychange 2.0 in close coordination with the British PRS Foundation and Musikcentrum Öst (Sweden). Alexander Schulz (CEO Reeperbahn Festival) is founder of the 50/50 pledge for festivals and music organisations.
What can I do to support the movement? Check it out here.
Keychange, the pioneering international initiative for gender equity in the music industry, welcomes 74 new participants to its 2023 Talent Development Programme. Bringing together a multitude of different skills and networks through the Keychange Pledge and Talent Development Programme, Keychange offers a unique ecosystem with international collaboration at its heart. Selected by industry and export specialists as future leaders, the newly announced participants mark the third cohort of artists and music industry professionals from 12 countries across Europe and Canada to take part in a year-long programme. It follows a highly competitive open call that received 830 applications.
Reeperbahn Festival introduces the 6 new participants from Germany:
“Equality in the music industry is obviously extremely important – for everybody. It’s a human issue, it’s not just a female issue. It makes the whole world more interesting because there’s a more fully-rounded creative output. To be honest, I think we still have so much to do and to fight for. I just want to be a part of that change.”
Kate Nash, artist and Keychange Ambassador, woofmusic
“I just like the idea of having a platform on which we can exchange our experiences on an emotional level but also based on facts and numbers. That’s what we need in order to talk about the disbalance that is going on in the music business. If we have facts and numbers it’s easier to talk about it, and to make people think about it, and to make people shift with us in order to make it better for everyone.”
Joy Denalane, artist and Keychange Ambassador
“It’s not just about women, it’s not about men. It’s not even that we’re women and men - and there’s a lot more. It’s about unearthing under that non-binary ways of identifying what we really are and becoming ourselves. It’s about all of us.”
Peaches, artist
“One thing that I think can come from this pledge is knowing that diversity of thought creates incredible art. And hopefully this pledge will advance that idea in a bigger and more important way.”
Puja Patel, Editor-in-Chief, Pitchfork
“I’ve enjoyed working with lots of talented female artists so I’d love to see more young women being encouraged to make music their career. Wouldn’t it be great for us all to see a more equal number of men and women on stages and on panels in the near future?”
