Smirnoff‘s “Equalizing Music” project is an initiative to double the number of woman-identified and non-binary producers and DJs on festival lineups by 2020. As part of International Women’s Day, Smirnoff joins forces with THUMP and Broadly today to launch Top 50 Women Making Noise, a multi-media project and multi-language tool for fans and bookers to discover artists and their music via a roster set-up that includes extensive biography and interviews. It also includes a Spotify playlist that collects together over 4 hours of music from the artists, as well as documentary called “Equalizing Music: Women Changing the Face of Electronic Music”. Following The Black Madonna (founder of America-based all-woman DJ festival, ‘Daphne’) and DJ Rachael (a prominent East African DJ and founder of the DJ collective, ‘Femme Electronic’), we watch the pair as they journey from the streets of Kampala, Uganda to a Daphne event in Chicago.
For more about the Equalizing Music Initiative, we’ve included information from their press release after the video embed…
Watch Equalizing Music: Women Changing the Face of Electronic Music
“Equalizing Music”
Smirnoff’s “Equalizing Music” initiative is aimed at bringing music fans and industry leaders together to double the number of woman-identified and non-binary producers and DJ on festival lineups by 2020. According to a sample study, conducted by THUMP, women only made up an average 17% of headliners in 2016 at popular music festivals around the world. By bringing music fans and industry leaders together, Smirnoff aspires to double the number of woman-identified and non-binary headliners by 2020.
Smirnoff’s “Equalizing Music” began with a push for industry partners to sign a pledge. By signing a pledge, each partner made a commitment to increase representation. In addition to Broadly and THUMP, key industry leaders who have already signed include Spotify, Pitchfork, iHeartRadio, Insomniac, and Mixmag. Together, these organizations are advancing gender representation across performance bookings, exposure in media and music availability.
As part of this pledge, THUMP and Broadly will also host a series of panels centered around creating impactful dialogue around gender equality within music, as well as partner with a non-profit organization to create a workshop event focused on mentoring and fostering young women talent in music.
The project also will host Equalizing Music: Women Changing the Face of Electronic Music a brand-new documentary that spotlights The Black Madonna from Chicago and DJ Rachael from Uganda. Produced by Smirnoff in partnership with Virtue Worldwide, VICE Media’s in-house creative services agency, the documentary focuses on the challenges that the two have faced in the industry, and finds the two revolutionary producer/DJs sharing their stories of success and perseverance.
