'We need to uplift them': Annie Mac calls out the industry's treatment of female producers

Culture
10 Dec 20

Women working in other creative roles in the music industry are still outnumbered, according to a recent study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California.

BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac has slammed the unfair treatment of female producers in a powerful Twitter thread.

The DJ, broadcaster, festival founder and novelist hit back at needless criticism of female producers and the double standards placed on their shoulders by the music industry.

A late 2019 study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that, while 21.7% of artists identified as women, they made up just 12.5% of songwriters in the report.

The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analysed the gender breakdown for music producers who worked on the top 400 popular songs from 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2018, discovering a men-to-women producer ratio of 47:1.

That same study showed that a shocking 3% of producers in the industry identify as women.

"I find it so frustrating that it's always women who get accused of not making their own records, when I could count on one hand the men I have encountered who write, play, produce and mix all their own music," she tweeted.

"Starting out as a female producer is getting easier and easier which is amazing. But I still see and hear the snide comments about women needing help to make records. It is standard practise to work with people in music production! There are many male producers who go as far as buying other people's productions and calling them their own. Why are women always held to a higher standard?"

"There’s such a huge amount of incredibly gifted female producers coming through right now," Mac added.

"We need to uplift them and celebrate their arrival onto a playing field that is still hugely disproportionate. It’s better for everyone."

Annie Mac (full name Annie MacManus) confirmed back in October that she has written her debut novel, Mother Mother - due to be released in May 2021 through Wildfire Books.

Mother Mother is described as "a powerful coming-of-age novel and an intimate family study."

Read Annie Mac's full thread on the issues within the music industry below:

I find it so frustrating that it's always women who get accused of not making their own records, when I could count on one hand the men I have encountered who write, play, produce and mix all their own music.

— Annie Mac (@anniemacmanus) December 9, 2020

For information on the Irish music industry and the role of womxn, check out the Why Not Her? initiative.

The equality and diversity activism campaign was set up to amplify the voices of womxn across the world. Check out their podcast and data reports here.