Brands & Merch Business News

Smirnoff announces fund to improve gender diversity in electronic music

By | Published on Thursday 29 June 2017

Smirnoff Sound Collective

Smirnoff has announced that it is setting up a fund to tackle gender diversity issues in dance music. This follows a round table discussion hosted by the brand at this year’s International Music Summit in Ibiza organised in association with the Shesaid.so music industry network for women.

“At and with International Music Summit we were keen to get to the bottom of this deep-rooted disparity issue and develop a long term and ongoing plan to help balance the ratio”, says Leila Fataar, Head Of Culture & Entertainment at Smirnoff parent company Diageo. “By connecting our Smirnoff Sound Collective platform with the IMS we have brought together some of the most forward-thinking people in the industry with a clear objective: finding solutions to gender disparity in electronic music”.

She continued: “From on-going conversations with key people from the industry, it is clear that there is not a one fix-all solution. Instead a variety important steps need to be taken – from grassroots to executive level, from single people to corporate companies, it will take the industry as a whole to sort this. We, as Smirnoff, are open to and will support breaking ideas and initiatives from DJs, companies, media, labels, individual players, managers, bookers and many other people involved in the scene to shape a plan together”.

Further details, including the announcement of a committee to oversee the fund, are due next month.



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