Spotify, Obama and the European Union Celebrate International Women’s Day
Spotify's International Women's Day festivities include unveiling data on the top-streaming female artists globally and releasing a new series of genre-based playlists.
Spotify’s International Women’s Day festivities include unveiling data on the top-streaming female artists globally and releasing a new series of genre-based playlists. Globally, Rihanna is tops as the most listened-to woman on Spotify, while in the U.S. Beyonce reigns supreme. Other artists to make the top ten include Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Lana Del Rey. Adele makes the list as well, and that’s without releasing new album 25 for streaming on Spotify. Of all the top artists, Beyonce actually had the highest proportion of streams from females on Spotify.
Most Listened to Females on Spotify Globally: 1. Rihanna // 2. Ariana Grande // 3. Beyoncé // 4. Ellie Goulding // 5. Katy Perry // 6. Lana Del Rey // 7. Sia // 8. Adele // 9. Selena Gomez // 10. Meghan Trainor
Most Listened to Females on Spotify in the U.S.: 1. Beyoncé // 2. Nicki Minaj // 3. Ariana Grande // 4. Rihanna // 5. Lana Del Rey // 6. Katy Perry // 7. Ellie Goulding // 8. Adele // 9. Selena Gomez // 10. Lorde
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Spotify also recently launched Women in Music & Culture, a series of 15 genre playlists that highlight iconic female artists and feature commentary tracks from Kelly Clarkson, Zendaya and others. Playlists include Women of Pop, EDM, K-Pop, Country, Latin Music, Folk, Metal, Classical and more. There are also playlists highlighting women in comedy, poetry and literature.
Of course, International Women’s Day is being commemorated by more than just a series of playlists. World leaders, including President Obama, are also celebrating roughly half the world’s population. “Women and girls make extraordinary contributions every day across all fields of human endeavor, including in business, education, sports, art, science, agriculture, parenting, and governance,” Obama said in a prepared statement. “Without these contributions, economies would collapse, communities would fail, and families would fall apart.”
In its statement, the European Union called for gender equality, specifically in the work place. “It is essential that we continue our efforts to integrate equality for women and men into every one of our policies across the board, in each of our Member States and in the countries we work with. Also within the Commission we will continue our strong commitment to gender equality. Women are still paid on average 16% less than men for every hour worked, still make up less than a quarter of company board positions and a third of women work part-time, notably because of care responsibilities that are not equitably shared with men.”
On the subject of workplace equality, Australian current affairs show Hack has released a report this week that shows women are widely underrepresented in the region’s music industry. The report found that just one in five members of the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) were women, and that females only make up 30 percent of public board members on peak music bodies in the country. The report also found that women make up a mere 20 percent of the staff at the 120 independent labels registered with the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR). Read the report here.