More than 250 music organisations and festivals from the music business – among them ferryhouse and ByteFM – are striving to achieve gender equality by 2022.

As far as equal opportunities for women are concerned, Keychange has held a leading role for parts of the music industry for several years now; it could ideally serve as role model for further industry sectors: In 2017, the Keychange initiative was launched by the British PRS Foundation at Reeperbahn Festival; it advocates strengthening the role of women in the music. In the course of this initial event, Reeperbahn Festival has promised to present balanced line-ups on its concert and conference stages by 2022, laying the foundation of the Keychange 50/50 Pledge for festivals to join this commitment.

At today’s press conference at the Swedish embassy in London, Keychange announced the next step of their programme which is extending it to adjacent businesses related to music, such as labels, agencies, orchestras, conservatories or radio stations. In this initiative it is up to the signatories of the Keychange 50/50 Pledge to decide individually how and where a gender balance will be achieved in their organisation. More than 250 music organisations and festivals are thus supporting the initiative.

Keychange is an international programme supported by the directorate Education and Culture of the European Commission and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). Keychange aims at strengthening the role of women in the music in order to achieve gender equality in the music industry in future. Together with 11 European partners, Reeperbahn Festival has applied for funding from the EU Commission to continue the extended Keychange initiative from 2019 to 2022.