SeeHer, Hear Her, AccelerateHER Launches to Empower Women in the Music Industry

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In the Equality Lounge at Advertising Week, the focus shifted to female representation in the music industry. The stats paint a grim picture -- women musicians are severely overlooked and underserved. A study by Northwestern University found that out of 5,000 record labels, only one-third had ever signed a female artist. The study also found that men release more songs than women, are signed to record labels more frequently and are aligned with more collaborators to produce music.

"We know that there is a tremendous gap in representation," said Christina Hill, Head of Experiential Marketing at Verizon. "Only 2% of producers are females, only 11% of airtime on country radio is dedicated to female artists and less than 8% of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees are women."

Tony Brown, Breakr CEO and Co-Founder, added, "The statistics are just obvious that if we had a chance to draw a line in the sand, this is the place to draw it. It's clear that we can shift the pendulum here and benefit consumers, brands and women at the same time."

Brown introduced, SeeHer, Hear Her AccelerateHER, a program created to upend those numbers by offering opportunities to female artists that increase their presence in front of and behind the mic. AccelerateHER will empower 15 female artists with real-time mentorship from music executives, as well as brand executives. The artists will receive the opportunity to perform live and receive training on influencer marketing.

The program is the brainchild of SeeHer Hear Her and Breakr, an independent marketplace that connects independent artists with major brands and influencers to help promote them across digital formats. "We are asking how can we not only empower women more and uplift them as creatives and as artists, but how are we giving them resources?" added Kameron McCullough, Executive Vice President of Breakr Select, whose company will provide participants with Breakr credits that give them the opportunity to interact with influencers and other creators in Breakr's marketplace.

"We are taking a holistic approach," said McCullough. "We want to help artists get on the biggest stages of the world, as well as develop their presence digitally and understand algorithms so they can really understand the music business."

Added Hull, "We have to really think about the full picture of content development from the licensing of music to female engineers to sound producers all the way to the artists -- the more we know, the better we are. When we lean in and support women in creative, media and now music, we not only inspire young girls and a younger generation, but [we also inspire] creators and producers that are all moving brands forward in positive sentiment but also, oftentimes with higher product sales. Now what is critical is applying that to the music industry."

AccelerateHER shows there is more opportunity and tools that we can leverage for greater female representation. In 2016, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and The Female Quotient launched SeeHer, a global movement to eliminate gender bias in marketing, advertising, media and entertainment. In the last five years, the women-empowerment movement has worked to increase accurate and inclusive representation of women and girls. In 2019, SeeHer Hear Her launched as a second initiative, with a specific focus on eliminating gender bias in the music industry.

Breakr and SeeHer are launching the pilot program of AccelerateHER pilot program this fall. To find out more, visit SeeHer.com.

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