28 percent, or almost 3 in 10, of new TONO members in 2021 were women, based on social security numbers. “Women are underrepresented among composers, lyricists and songwriters, but we see a positive trend among the new members,” says TONO Membership Manager, Jan Espen Storo.
/ 06/09/2022 / Willy MartinsenThe proportion of women among new TONO members has been on an upward trend. Over the past fifteen years, it has increased from just over 22 percent to just under 28 percent in 2021.
– In recent years, TONO has gained around 1500 to 1600 new members a year. If we look at their social security numbers, we see that the proportion of women in recent years has largely been around 25 percent. In 2021, it was 28 percent, up from 24 percent the year before. So far this year, 27 percent of new members have social security numbers that indicate they are women, says TONO Membership Manager Jan Espen Storo.
TONO is a collective management organization that manages copyrights in musical works on behalf of composers, lyricists and music publishers. The organization now has 38,000 members. Some have music creation as a full-time profession, others as a hobby. Some have registered hundreds of works, others perhaps only one. Some are active in 2022, while others have not created music or lyrics for a few years. It is the young, the elderly and those who have dropped out but still have protected rights who can generate TONO income. If you look at the gender distribution, two out of ten are women. With an increasing proportion of women among the new members in recent years, this will slowly but surely change.
– We get around 25 percent new women as members each year, so the distribution of the membership will even out somewhat over time. But even though the trend is positive, one can say that there is still a long way to go before it is good enough, says Storo.
TONO has had a sponsorship partnership with the camp Nordic Songs for several years, and this year as well the bandcamp LOUD.
– We believe that connections like this are important and have an effect. We also believe that more girls have been inspired to write music because there have been many good female role models in recent years, such as Ina Wroldsen, Caroline Ailin, Girl in Red and so on, says Storo.
For two weeks from September 1, TONO will be focusing a special spotlight on biases among composers, lyricists and songwriters with the campaign "Let more people be heard". Here we present figures in TONO's databases that testify to inequalities between women and men, based on social security numbers. We hope that the campaign engages and that the information we share is a useful addition to the discussion about gender and diversity in the music industry. If you have any questions or suggestions for us, send us an email to redaksjon@tono.noPlease visit the campaign page. laflereblihört.no.
The text has been updated since first publication.