Only 2 out of 10 songwriters are women

Only 2 out of 10 songwriters are women. Among the 50 most played songs on Spotify in Norway in 2020, 12 percent of the songwriters and 0,7 percent of the producers were women. Now TONO and a wide range of Norwegian songwriters and artists want to draw attention to these biases with the campaign "Let More Be Heard".

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 / 01/09/2022 / Kristian Dugstad

Anne Judith Wik, Anneli Drecker and Bel Canto, Bertine Zetlitz, Daniela Reyes, Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, Ellen Andrea Wang, Fay Wildhagen, Frida Ånnevik, Ingeborg Mohn, Kari Bremnes, Lars Bremnes, Malin Pettersen, Maria Haukaas Mittet, Maria Mena, Matilda Gressberg, Sol Heilo, Thea Glenton Raknes, Thomas Dybdahl, Trygve Skaug and Øystein Greni are among the Norwegian songwriters and artists who are now contributing to the information campaign "Let more people be heard".

Visit the campaign page Let more people be heard.

– Sad and serious

The campaign aims to draw attention to some fundamental biases among those who create the music and lyrics Norwegians listen to.

– Gender is of course also about identity, but if we break down TONO's membership of 38,000 members by social security number, we still see a clear pattern: Only 2 out of 10 are women. And even though 3 out of 10 new TONO members in 2021 have social security numbers indicating that they are women, making music is still such a gender and identity-neutral activity that in principle it should have been equally distributed. The numbers tell us that many with a talent for writing music and lyrics have not been able to develop it, which we find sad and serious. The audience is also left poorer by missing out on perspectives and stories, says Willy Martinsen, Director of Communications at TONO.

Few women at the top of the income ladder

TONO pays out money to composers and lyricists when their music is played on radio and TV, on concert stages, on music and film streaming services, in cinemas, etc. The more the music is played, the higher the TONO payouts. The payouts also show clear differences in who makes money from writing music:

– Only 12 of the 100 Norwegian songwriters who received the largest TONO payments in 2021 are women when we look at social security numbers. Spotify says that 12 percent of the songwriters in the 50 most played songs in Norway on their service last year were women. The imbalances are also visible in other parts of the music scene, both in Norway and in the other Nordic countries, says Martinsen.

"Let more people be heard"

TONO will start the information campaign "Let more people be heard" on September 1st, which will run for two weeks. TONO hopes that as many of the organization's members as possible will join in and share informational images about the case on Instagram.

At by:Larm, TONO will also be setting up a panel discussion with Sira Berry from Spotify, artist and songwriter Amanda Delara, Sofie Søndervik Sæther from JM Norway and CEO of Balansekunst, and panel moderator, Siri Haugan Holden, who will discuss causes and solutions.  

Facts and statistics

• 20 percent of TONO's members are women (based on registered social security numbers in our member database)
• Among new TONO members in 2021, the gender distribution was 28 percent women and 72 percent men.
• Among the 50 most played songs on Spotify in Norway in 2020, only 12 percent of the songwriters and 0,7 percent of the producers were women. (Spotify 2021)
• Among the 100 composers and lyricists who received the largest TONO settlement in 2021, there were 12 women.
• Of all TONO members who received TONO payments in 2021, 19 percent were women.
• Among the 100 who received the largest TONO payouts from concerts in 2021, there were 14 women
• Among the 100 who received the largest TONO payouts from radio plays in 2021, there were 22 women
• The gender distribution in Statistics Norway's statistics on employed people in music is 69 percent men and 31 percent women (Statistics Norway Cultural Statistics 2020).
• 2 out of 10 Norwegian composers are women, but only two percent of the music in Norwegian orchestras is composed by women (Norwegian Composers' Association 2019).
• TONO's sister societies in Finland (Teosto) and Denmark (Koda) have 20 percent female members. STIM in Sweden has 21 percent female members. British PRS for Music has 17 percent female members.
• Among those 800 most popular songs worldwide between 2012-2019var 12 percent of songwriters og 2,6 percent of music producers kvinner (USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2021 via the Balance Art Project). 

The Balance Art Project has many other statistics about the biases in the music industry and in cultural life on its website: https://www.balansekunstprosjektet.no/statistikk

The campaign page "Let more people be heard" can be visited at www.laflereblihørt.no