Research on Women’s Day: a quarter of Gramex’s personal customers are women

08.03.2024 Noora Marttila

Data Artists Data Equality Gramex Musicians Producers Sustainability

Gramex releases statistics on the role of women in music. About a quarter of Gramex’s individual clients, that is, music performers and producers, are women. This proportion has remained the same for the past six years, indicating that women are still underrepresented in the music industry compared to the general population. The statistics were published in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 and the work towards equality.

Over the past six years, Gramex has grown its personal customer base by around 11 000 music professionals. The proportion of women has grown steadily in line with the overall growth.

“According to statistics, women have long represented around 25% of Gramex’s clientele. Although the total number of clients has increased every year, the proportion of women has remained the same. It seems that there has been little change in the last few years in either direction,” says Sari Aalto-Setälä, Gramex’s Director of Communications.

The results show that women are still under-represented in the field of music in relation to the total population. According to Statistics Finland, 2.8 million (50.5%) of Finland’s population are women.

“It is clear that we need to work hard on equality and equity to change the statistics. The work starts with an open debate and requires concerted action. For our part, we are very committed to this work,” says Aalto-Setälä.

Towards better

The share of compensation paid to women is also small. Around 21% of the compensation paid in 2023 was paid to female customers.

There are some small pleasures. The share of compensation paid to women has risen quite nicely over the last few years. In 2018, the share of women receiving compensation was still just over 19%.

“It is positive that the amount of compensation paid to women seems to be slightly increasing. This hopefully bodes well for the future and bodes well for accelerating progress towards equality. A diverse music industry is in everyone’s interest,” says Aalto-Setälä.

Gramex statistics are based on the identification data required by the authorities (hetu). For this reason, for example, people of other genders or those who do not declare their gender are not included in the analysis. In addition, Gramex’s corporate or organisational clients (business ID) are not included in the statistics.