Women and Nonbinary Producers and Engineers “Vastly Underrepresented” in 2022’s Top Songs, New Study Finds

The report begins by looking at the top 10 most-streamed tracks of 2022 across five major DSPs: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, and TikTok. Of the 36 unique songs in those entries, there were 240 credited producers and engineers, only 16 of which were women and nonbinary people. The study found that among those same top 10 songs from DSPs last year, women and nonbinary individuals were more highly concentrated within assistant roles than in key technical roles, which could indicate “a growing pipeline of these contributors rising into key levels,” according to the study’s authors, but could also “be indicative of a glass ceiling preventing this demographic from an upward trajectory.”

For the largest section of data, Lost in the Mix compiled the top 50 songs from 14 genre-specific lists: pop, Latin, rap, hip-hop, dance, R&B, country, rock and alternative, metal, folk and Americana, electronic, Christian and gospel, classical, and jazz. The lowest percentages of women and nonbinary people credited in key technical roles were found in metal (0.0%), rap (0.7%), and Christian and gospel at (0.8%). 

Meanwhile the electronic genre clocked in with 17.6% of its producer roles held by women and nonbinary people. Folk and Americana was also high, with women and nonbinary producers representing 16.4% of its top 50 songs in 2022 as well as the second-highest percentage for engineering roles at 6.4%, following R&B (7.2%).