What is Keychange?
Keychange is an international movement that invests in emerging talent whilst encouraging music organisations to sign up to a gender balance pledge.
Keychange is led by Reeperbahn Festival, PRS Foundation and Musikcentrum Öst, supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, in partnership with Tallinn Music Week, Iceland Airwaves, BIME, Oslo World, Linecheck/Music Innovation Hub, Ireland Music Week, SACEM, Liverpool Sound City, Way Out West, MAMA, Mutek and Breakout West. Find out about our other generous supporters here.
Keychange 2.0 will support 74 participants each year. Selected through an open call process, the Keychange network will be made up of music creators and innovative music industry professionals from Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. The participants will take part in an extensive talent development programme of showcases, panels, workshops, mentoring and creative sessions at 13 festivals across Europe and Canada, including 2 full network meetups in February and September.
The festival partners are Reeperbahn Festival (Germany), Iceland Airwaves, Tallinn Music Week (Estonia), Way Out West (Sweden), Mutek (Canada), Breakout West (Canada), Liverpool Sound City (UK), MAMA (France), Ireland Music Week, BIME (Spain), Linecheck (Italy), Oslo World (Norway) and an additional festival in Poland, all of which will host 6-12 international Keychange participants.
What is the Keychange talent development programme?
Keychange supports women and gender expansive Artists and Innovators to take part in an extensive talent development programme of showcases, panels, workshops, mentoring and creative sessions. The year-long programme takes place at 13 festivals across Europe and Canada, including 2 full network meetups in February and September. As well as exporting opportunities, the Keychange talent developement programme helps participants to get to the next stage in their career through targeted training. Our partnership with shesaid.so on our we.grow mentoring programme helps to build confidence and address any barriers they might face with personal one-on-one support; inspiring and empowering participants with direct access to experienced role models. Our Capacity Building Programme offers bespoke panels, webinars, workshops and group sessions featuring speakers from organisations such as Ableton, The Orchard, Twitch, Music Declares Emergency, TikTok and more.
Why should I apply to the Keychange talent development programme?
Have you experienced barriers because of your gender? Do you need to build your confidence and your contacts list? Keychange supports exceptional talent from across the world to the next stage in their career. We recruit 74 participants in each cohort and provide them with the opportunities they need to progress. We can help you realise your potential and become the leaders of tomorrow.
What do I get as a Keychange Participant?
Each participant gets a travel bursary so they can attend at least 2 international Keychange events. At these events they will have access to a bespoke training programme featuring inspirational speakers and development opportunities. In partnership with shesaid.so, each participant will have the option to take part in the online peer-to-peer mentoring programme, we.grow. As well as being part of our international movement for equality, with new connections to partners, sponsors, signatories and Ambassadors, a significant part of the programme is engaging with (and collaborating with) the 74 participants who are part of your cohort. The more you put into Keychange, the more you will get from it!
What is an ‘Artist’ and what is an ‘Innovator’?
An ‘Artist’ as anyone writing and performing their own music. An ‘Innovator’ is anyone working in music who doesn’t write and/or perform their own music. You cannot apply as an Artist and an Innovator.
What are we looking for in Artists?
Innovative, emerging artists, with a distinctive and original talent that would contribute to the breadth and excellence of the Keychange programme.
The ability to write and perform your own music to facilitate the showcasing element of this project
Be ready to export, including:
– Having a strong following in your country, with the potential to break into other markets
– Have the beginnings of a professional support team working with you to support business development
What are we looking for in Innovators?
Professionals pushing the boundaries of music industry practice; demonstrating interest in new business models and innovative ways of working.
Have a growing track record, with at least 4 years experience working in music.
Be able to demonstrate your commitment to supporting emerging artists from all backgrounds, have an interest in enabling talented women and gender minorities to flourish and in influencing change across the industry.
Be working with music whether from within the industry or another creative sector (tech, audiovisual, design) which intersects with new music business models.
Both Artists and Innovators will need to:
Be able to demonstrate why participating in this project would have a transformative impact at this stage in your career.
Confirm your availability for participating in Year 2 of the project (2022). Participants will be required to attend one full network meet-up in February and one full network meet-up in September at Reeperbahn Festival (approx. 3 days each). As well as this, in the application you will be able to state availability for our festival partners and you may be selected to showcase at or attend one or more.
Be able to demonstrate your need for financial support, what you would get out of the network and why you want to be part of Keychange.
Is there any specific criteria for my country?
Yes. You can apply to Keychange if you are based in Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden or the UK. This is because we have partners in each of these countries. If you want to become a partner and support Keychange participation in your own country, go here. Otherwise, we will release country specific criteria when applications open.
What monetary support options are there?
Each participant will get a baseline travel bursary. We allocate extra funds to participants who are based in Canada (as they need to travel further), to participants with childcare needs, and to participants with access needs.
How do I apply to the Keychange talent development programme?
We recruit participants in 2019, 2021 and 2022. When applications are open you can apply here.
What’s the selection process and next steps?
The partners in your country assess your applications based on the quality of your work, your application, and if they think now is the right time for you to be involved in the programme. Applications are scored and a shortlist of applicants are taken through to the live decision panel. Our festival partners then select the applications that they would like to come along to their festival.
What is the Keychange gender pledge?
It’s a document that music organisations sign to commit to achieving gender balance within their work/organisation. Find out more here.
How do I sign my festival/organisation up to the Keychange pledge?
Please send information about your event or organisation to francine@keychange.eu or go here.
Why is Keychange needed?
Representation of women and gender minorities in the music industry remains very low in all European countries. Across the participating countries’ collecting societies, women and gender minorities represent 20% or less of registered composers and songwriters.
How did Keychange come about?
It began in 2017 as a European talent development programme for emerging artists and innovators, founded by Vanessa Reed, led by PRS Foundation, and managed by Jess Partridge in Phase One.
The pledge was proposed by Keychange festival partners who wanted to show they are serious in their commitment to gender equality in addition to offering showcasing opportunities to underrepresented talent.
Since then festivals from all over the world have signed up to the pledge making Keychange a movement for positive change, and in June 2019, the Keychange pledge expanded to invite all music organisations to sign up.
In 2019 Keychange announced a new phase with new project leads Reeperbahn Festival, funded by Creative Europe. 74 participants will be recruited each year in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Isn’t this discriminatory towards men?
Similar opportunities are open to all genders in our partner countries. Keychange isn’t about taking opportunities away from anyone, it’s about creating new opportunities for people who have been consistently held back. From our experience, this kind of targeted support is needed to empower a diverse range of people to come forward, boost confidence, create role models, and make long lasting change throughout the industry.
What’s the current gender balance across live music festivals?
In the British Festival Report of UK ‘ring leaders’ in 2019, 16 of the 22 line-ups surveyed were over 80% male-dominated. Similar numbers appear in the Study of French Music Festivals by CNM Centre National de la Musique.
In our Keychange network some festivals are further away from the target than others. Some are leading the way by having already achieved the 50% target and are using Keychange as an opportunity to promote how they’ve reached this target.
What about gender expansive performers and professionals?
We will include all women and gender expansive people in the 50% target for the Keychange pledge and within the Keychange 2.0 participant selection process. This includes bands or groups with mixed genders. Keychange is based on inclusivity – we acknowledge and represent all genders and our aim is to empower underrepresented genders who might have experienced barriers.
What do you mean by gender minority?
This is a way of acknowledging everyone who is underrepresented in music and might have encountered barriers because of their gender. We do not just include cis women in our campaign for equality, we also welcome applications and encourage our festivals to empower gender expansive individuals including (but not limited to) agender and non-binary people. We welcome applications from trans people (AMAB and AFAB), and we are happy to speak to you if you are unsure if Keychange is for you, so we can support your application or participation in the Keychange programme. We believe that inclusivity and intersectionality are vital in the steps that we make towards equality and we want to ensure our talent development programme and the Keychange pledge is as inclusive as possible. If you are unsure if Keychange is for you, please email info@keychange.eu and someone can speak to you about the campaign and the programme.
For more information on different gender identities, please see here.
Why is the target set for 2022?
We launched the Keychange programme towards the end of 2017 so this pledge was established as a 5 year framework for change.
Keychange is the first collective approach to tackling gender equality at festivals and throughout the music industry, so we’re starting with specific, measured steps, shaped by the festivals and organisations themselves which gives everyone a chance of making tangible progress and creating realistic long term change.
We think 2022 is an ambitious but achievable target with time for change year on year.
What happens to the pledge after 2022?
Keychange is a programme that is building momentum over time and it will last as long as it takes. We’ll use the data we gather and the feedback from the signatories to guide further steps the programme will take, whether that’s continuing to focus on representation in the music industry, or wider. Success will be the moment when Keychange isn’t needed any more, but until then we will do what we can to promote positive action in the music industry.
What do you mean by a 50% target?
Roughly, women and gender expansive individuals make up 50% of the global population but they are underrepresented in the music industry. Keychange is fighting for change. Festivals and organisations are making a gender balance commitment which makes sense to their own set up, programme and music genre e.g. major classical events like BBC Proms and Aldeburgh Festivals are looking at the number of women and gender minority composers they commission, popular music festivals are looking at the number of women and gender minorities on their stages and industry showcases are also looking at their conference panels.
50% in line-ups of popular music festivals will be measured according to the number of acts featuring at least one woman or gender minority member.
Does 50% mean an even balance of festival headliners?
Our priority is to ensure that at least 50% of acts programmed include at least one woman or gender expansive person. Many of the festivals are going further than this but we want this first target to be achievable and to encourage everyone who’s working on this to be thinking about long term change.
What if one year a festival’s programme is more balanced than another year between now and the end of their pledge period?
Some festivals will be aiming for an average of at least 50% over the 4 years as their line-ups naturally fluctuate around the 50% mark.
And for other music organisations, in which areas are they being asked to apply the 50% target?
Orchestras could use the 50% target for composers commissioned and/or number of players, no. of principal players, balance of senior staff.
Concert halls could look at line-ups on stage (as our Keychange festivals have) or other aspects of their organisation eg. senior staff, backstage staff.
Conservatoires could look at students, lecturers, senior staff teams, live music programmes, visiting musicians.
Agents, publishers and labels may want to look at the balance of artists they sign.
Other charities or trade bodies could also consider the make-up of their Board and staff whilst pledging to encourage its members to sign up to Keychange as well.
Broadcasters could use the pledge to look at the guests they invite onto their shows or presenters and music broadcast.
Publications and those employing editorial staff could apply the Keychange pledge when commissioning writers, editors, photographers etc.
Organisations with youth groups or education programmes may also want to apply a Keychange pledge to this area of their work. We strongly believe that the target needs to be defined and owned by the festivals and organisations themselves and we will collate data annually to help measure progress.
Why aren’t you demanding exactly the same data from everyone?
Because every festival and organisation is different, and depending of the festival or organisation in question, our signatories have made different pledges concerning a variety of areas within their set up.
We are aiming to increase the number of women performing at festivals and working in the music industry at every level, rather than creating restrictive or off putting guidelines. Keychange is about celebrating the efforts being made by music organisations who sign up rather than naming and shaming those who don’t.
How do we go about collecting all of this data?
All of the Keychange signatories are joining a pledge and providing data through a central survey which we will keep track of over the next 4 years.
Why now?
The momentum building around gender equality across the creative industries at the moment gives us a great opportunity to start pushing for real change.
There’s much more recognition of the gender gap in music than there was before. That’s the first step in this journey; now it’s about men and women in positions of influence promoting role models, investing in emerging talent, recognising the barriers for women in a male dominated industry and leading change that will benefit everyone. Current Keychange partners are encouraging more festivals to join the gender equality pledge in order to create sustainable change in the music industry and to show that it is possible for festivals to successfully achieve this balance.
Can I apply to be a Keychange participant?
We recruit participants in 2019, 2021 and 2022. When applications are open you can apply here.
What is the time commitment?
Participants will be required to take part in a full network meet-up in February and a full network meet-up at Reeperbahn Festival in September. Both meet-ups last less than a week. Most participants attend 3 Keychange events throughout the year. In the application form you will be able to state which festivals you are available for throughout the year and you may be selected to perform or attend one or more of our festival partners. Furthermore you will be invited to your local Keychange festival. Mentoring and online training is provided and participants are encouraged to put in as much as they can so they can subsequently get as much as possible from the programme - a big part of Keychange is engaging and interacting with the network in your region and around the world.
What is next for the Keychange programme?
Keychange 2.0 will support 222 participants 2019-2024. Selected through an open call process, the participants will be made up of music creators and innovative music industry professionals from Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
Meanwhile, Keychange partners are encouraging more festivals and other music organisations to join the gender equality pledge in order to create sustainable change in the music industry and to show that it is possible for festivals and any music organisation to successfully achieve balance.