This List of Woman and Non-binary-Run Music Organizations Is the Future of the Industry

Check it out and add your name.

It’s news to no one that men remain overrepresented in music. Book More Women has harnessed festival posters as a powerful tool to illustrate the skewed demographics of the festival circuit, where male-fronted bands and solo acts typically comprise around 65 percent of the bill. A recent University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study of 700 popular songs from 2012-2018 found that only 21.7 percent of the artists, 12.3 percent of the songwriters, and a staggering 2.1 percent of the producers behind those songs were women. These inequalities reverberate into record label ownership and management: According to stats cited by advocacy group Women in Music, just 15 percent of labels are majority-owned by women.

René Kladzyk, who performs as ZIEMBA, wants to change that with a grassroots database of music industry organizations with women and non-binary people at the helm. While shopping around her new record, Ardis, she was troubled by how few women and non-binary A&R reps and label owners she encountered during her search. Recognizing that only deep structural change will truly revolutionize the industry, she was inspired to speak with women and non-binary musicians who are self-releasing or starting their own labels.

Kladzyk told AdHoc via email that her conversations with artists like Suzi Analogue, Fielded, Hether Fortune, and Bunny Michael “really hit home to me how many musicians there are out there who have been burned and put through the ringer working with predatory men in the music industry. Dealing with that will make you really motivated to work with women.” She began making the list wanting to “prove to [herself] that women-run record labels are out there, and that we artists do have choices.” Men might be the gatekeepers of the industry today, but she sees her list as a step towards a better future: “I hope that it can be part of a wave of change in the music industry, moving toward being more equitable and inclusive.”

She hopes the list will continue to expand, and plans to round out the list with sections for engineers, producers, recording studios, and music publications. “The music industry can be really alienating and depressing, and I think building shared resources for artists is incredibly important, not just practically, but psychologically,” she says. “If there’s anything I’d like someone reading this to take away, it’s to please share this list among your circle of friends—that’s what has enabled it to grow.”

Please note this list is constantly being updated. Stay up to date here.

RECORD LABELS
Amateur Pop, Inc.
Ambrosia
Arbutus Records
Arrowhawk Records
B4 Sounds
Bayonet Records
Beyond is Beyond is Beyond
Bikini Kill Records
Bitchwave
Bubble Bath Records
Buffet Tapes
Chatterbot Records
City Slang Records
Club Queen Records
Cultivated Sound
Danse Noire
Decemberism
Deep Sea Records
Dero Arcade
Dove Cove Records
Earth Libraries
Ethereal Beatbox
Etruscan Gold Ltd.
Eye Vybe Records
Fake Accent
Father Daughter Records
Feel Trip
Femme Culture
Fixture Records
Future Audio Graphics
Get Better Records
Grimalkin Records
Grind Ethos
Heavy Blossom
Hospital Productions
Infinite Weed
Jacktone Records
Lazy Tapes
London Field Recordings
LV Music
Knife Play – Curating from Hell
Knock Em Dead
Merge Records
Midwest Action
Mindrider Records
Minimal Wave
Mom + Pop
Mount Analog
Mutual Aid Records
Naive
Never Normal Records
New York Trax
Nicey Music
No Rent Records
No-Tech BK
The Nothing Song
Objects Limited
OK Tapes
Paralaxe Editions
Peach House Records
Plan B Recordings
Rice is Nice
Righteous Babe
Sargent House
Sister Polygon Records
Sleep Well Records
Soap Library
Spinster Sounds
Spirit House
Stay Tropical
Sub Pop
Substitute Scene
Swamp Circle
Thrill Jockey
Trans Trenderz
Trouble in Mind Records
Unheard Records
Vain Mina Records
Wild Flesh Productions
Yesmissolga
Zhe Rocks