Tkay Maidza, Girls Rock Australia Network, in Spotify’s inaugural EQUAL Music Program

Tkay Maidza will represent Australia and New Zealand in Spotify’s inaugural EQUAL Music Program, which attempts to foster gender equity by supporting women under one brand.

The global movement also has Girls Rock Australia Network onboard the new EQUAL board.

An USC Annenberg study commissioned by Spotify found women only represented 20.2% of artists on the US Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, 45.1% were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups and 12.9% were songwriters.

Just 2.6% of the 100 tracks were produced by women, who earned a total of 33 producing credits, nine of which went to women of colour. The full program includes:

EQUAL local playlists: each playlist will reflect the 35 markets spanning 50+ countries – from Japan to Argentina, from Malaysia to the UK.

EQUAL Global Playlist: will contain music from EQUAL artists from all around the world to ensure their voices are heard across borders.

EQUAL Artists of the Month: one artist from each participating market will be featured on the cover of their respective, local playlist.

They will each be supported with promotion throughout the Spotify editorial space.

Created By Women Playlist: the co-branded EQUAL + NOTEABLE playlist is the first of its kind, featuring 40 songs that are 100% written, produced, and performed exclusively by women songwriters, producers and artists.

“Women are standing up and claiming that’s theirs, Spotify is always innovative and mindful – making sure that their artists and audience know they care about them,” Adelaide-raised Maidza, with 1,121,573 monthly Spotify listeners, said in a statement.

“So it’s an honour to be picked as an equal artist among so many talented women.”

There are 35 artists in the inaugural program. One is 18-year-old Zoe Wees from Germany, whose song ‘Girls Like Us’ is one that Spotify said could become an anthem.

Joining Girls Rock Australia Network on the EQUAL board are 15 associations including She’s The Music (US), She Said So (Italy), MEWEM Europa (Europe), Girls Connected (Canada) and Music Women (Germany).

Spotify is also relaunching The EQUAL Directory in partnership with SoundGirls, with the new tagline ‘Women at full volume’.

It profiles women of all experiences and gender-nonconforming creators to be booked for tours, studio projects, film and TV production, game, post-production, podcasts and more.