Findings in a new ‘Misogyny In Music’ report by Youth Music have exposed widespread claims of unsafe work environments, low pay and discrimination across the music industry.
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Titled Just the Way It Is?, and produced in partnership with the Musicians’ Union and Music Guardians, the research – which is available to read in full here – drew from 19 testimonies from in-depth focus groups, alongside additional data from 50 respondents gathered through a social media snapshot poll.
First shared back in December, said poll findings highlighted several glaring issues for young creatives, including that over 70 per cent reported feeling unsafe in a working environment within the music industry, with an additional 90 per cent feeling unable to speak out about unfair practices.
The same number of respondents also said they felt they had been paid unfairly for their work, which in turn saw 75 per cent report that they considered giving up their ambitions – either due to unsafe or unfair conditions.
One more optimistic stat saw 85 per cent say they felt inspired by artists like RAYE, whose campaigning has helped open up conversations about rights and accountability. She is a figure who has been consistently frank about the “evil” practises she’s witnessed within the industry, and has previously claimed that “songwriters are being manipulated”.
Speaking at Coachella 2024, RAYE said that one common industry practice was record labels forcing songwriters to approve a 10 per cent split and no master royalty points.
The multi-BRIT winner also spoke to NME in 2022 about those same struggles, saying: “When you sign with a record label, technically they work for you: you’re signing to a company for them to work for your career and take you to that next level. But as a woman, it just doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you’re working for them. And you know, some of the things I had to put my body through to even be able to that… it’s really quite sad.”
The report also comes following various figures from the music industry speaking to NME in 2023 about the “dangerous” impact that touring can have on musicians, while offering up help and advice for World Mental Health Day.
Mental health charity Mind also shared that people working in the music industry are “more prone to mental health problems than the general population”, with “musicians being up to three times more likely to suffer from depression”.
Around that same time, musicians’ charity Help Musicians reported a 200 per cent increase in people engaging with their services over the past two years.
There have been efforts to help provide more support for artists prevailing in recent years. Last summer, for instance, the Music Industry Therapy Collective (MITC) set up the Online Tour Health And Welfare Coaching service – a 24-hour mental health support service available for touring professionals working in music, including artists, production staff, promoters, venues and agents.
However, the Youth Music report has pushed for renewed efforts when it comes to safeguarding, inclusion and fair pay. In its call for “urgent, collective action”, it looked said industry employers should always strive to ensure fair pay, transparent contracts and safe workplace cultures.
The report also featured insight from Victoria Canal, who said she “had no awareness of the normalised harm young people face in the music industry,” and has been vocal about her early-career experiences being defined by harassment, exploitation, disability discrimination and grooming.
Last summer, she came out with allegations that someone she previously worked with had sexually abused and groomed her. She did not name the person in the post, but rather said that he was a “very powerful, decades-older man [who] plucked me out of the internet, and college, and invited me on my first professional opportunity”.
She added that “as redemptive” as it would feel, she would did not want to mention him by name, as she couldn’t risk the “financial loss or emotional terror a lawsuit would bring”.
Carol Reid, Programme Director at Youth Music, said that Canal’s experience mirrored what the organisation is hearing more frequently from young people nationwide: “Too often, exploitation and inequality are commonplace for young people trying to break into music, and marginalised young people are suffering the biggest impact.
“Real change will come from the whole music community working together and moving from a place of quiet acceptance toward a culture of shared responsibility. We hope this report gives people the confidence, clarity and practical steps they need to help create safer, fairer working environments for young creatives.”
Similar calls from a 2024 report had been praised by Self Esteem, who hit out sexism in the music industry following the publication of a past ‘Misogyny In Music’ report.
It also claimed that sexual abuse and harassment was common, and that women faced limitations in opportunity, a lack of support and persistent unequal pay. Self Esteem – real name Rebecca Lucy Taylor – later shared her own experiences with misogyny along with her thoughts on the report’s findings.
“I didn’t think in my lifetime I’d see any transparency about it,” she said. “You are made to feel like you’re being over the top, too much, a princess, a diva. Now, me at 37, reading this report I’m going – well yeah, I feel validated.”
