BREAKING THE SEXIST ALGORITHM

With the lack of gender diversity a prominent issue within the music industry, VOCAL GIRLS writer Flo Stroud explores the role streaming sites play in creating divides between male and female artists.

In the current fast-paced digital climate, new music is within instant reach. You can listen to any song you want in a matter of clicks and taps or, quite literally, as fast as you can say ‘Hey Google / Alexa’ (or whatever robotic device you’ve chosen to live in your home). While technological advancements are well and good in many respects - with on-demand music providing a solid platform for unsigned artists - the rise of the streaming site has proved problematic for artists trying to make an income from their music.

The streaming site has a lot to answer for in regards to which artists we see on billboards, hear on the radio and pay to see live. Put simply, the streaming site has the power to make or break an artist and, more often than not, the vast majority of artists they feature are male.

Despite technological advancements, the rise of digital music is not solely to blame for the gender divide within the music world. Sexism within the industry is as old as the ages and, like in the majority of fields, there has always been a lack of recognition of female artists. Take ‘Top Of The Pops’, the wildly popular weekly music show which ran from 1964 through to 2006. It was the primary source of music discovery for millions of teenagers through the sixties and into the early noughties, and it was no exception to the rigorous divides that run through the industry. 

In 1973 the percentage of male to female artists booked to perform on the show was 80% to 20%; in 1983 it was 79% to 21%, with three mixed acts; by 1993 the numbers were 75% to 25%, and in 2003 it was 66% to 34%. Despite improving over time, the lack of gender diversity has remained stringent throughout the decades, which has ultimately fed into the representation within new music discovery habits.

Although streaming sites dominate the industry, the hunger for physical copies of music has somewhat returned, with ‘retro’ mediums such as vinyl and tapes held onto for nostalgia - 4.8 million LP’s were sold in the UK in 2020, the highest number since the britpop boom of the early 90s.

However, streaming still prevails. With 299 million listeners, Spotify is now the biggest streaming site in existence, but the lowest paying of all its major contenders at just 1/3 of a cent per stream. As a result, musicians are now faced with a similar problem to that of YouTubers and social media ‘influencers’; what they create does not necessarily result in profit. An artist would need 3,114 streams on Spotify to earn an hours pay on UK minimum wage; currently amounted at £8.72. 

Spotify has not avoided criticism, though. In 2014 Taylor Swift pulled her entire back-catalogue from the site; a bold move, though arguably one of minimal risk thanks to her extensive fame and fortune. The majority of musicians are not so fortunate and, already in a vulnerable position due to Covid-19 would not be able to afford to pull off such a move.

The fault in streaming sites, however, does not lie only in their lack of remuneration but also in their lack of diversity. Streaming sites promote far more male artists than female artists both through their editorial playlists and their algorithm-generated recommendations; something which has been noted by country singer Martina McBride, who posted on her Instagram story in 2019 that it took her fourteen refreshes of the recommended songs in her Spotify playlist to come across a single song by a female artist. That song was ‘Church Bells’ by Carrie Underwood.

Evidently, female artists gain far less recognition on streaming sites. Especially considering that, of the top twenty most-streamed artists on Spotify, just 7 are female. As freelance playlist curator Mishel Kazi notes: “There is a distinct lack of female artists being promoted within the industry in general…so, you generally see less female artist’s music trending and consequently less being recommended in Spotify. It’s a cycle.” 

Kazi explains that streaming sites use algorithms to determine who is featured in their playlists. “They use combined signals like saves, skips, taste profiles and, most importantly, playlists” she goes on to say. “Being on popular independent playlists on [streaming sites] massively increases your chances of being in the algorithm generated playlists and consequently the editorial ones.” 

With streaming sites acting as catalogues for music discovery, and listeners turning to editorial playlists and in-app recommendations to find something new, sites such as Spotify and Apple Music really do have the power to propel artists into the musical stratosphere or to let them slide deep into the sites shadowy depths. 

Who they choose to feature has monumental effect, resulting in festival slots, radio plays and touring; all of which provide opportunities, recognition and profit. The fact that more men are afforded this opportunity speaks volumes of how much further we have to come. The music industry has undoubtedly undergone change in light of technological advancements. Shouldn’t the same be expected of our attitudes towards gender?