Max SteventonLeading music industry organisations have united in support of a Seat at the Table Inclusion Pledge, a landmark sector-wide commitment to achieving gender balanced leadership by 2030.
The initiative follows the Seat at the Table: LIVE Edition 2025 report by Women in CTRL, commissioned by LIVE (Live Music Industry Venues & Entertainment). All 15 LIVE member organisations have now signed the pledge, committing to the setting of measurable inclusion goals, annual progress check-ins and shared learning across the sector.
New signatories include ATC Live and Ginger Owl, while The Royal Albert Hall, AEG and The O2 have been named industry champions, supporting accountability through shared case studies, mentoring and roundtable participation.
Aligned with LIVE’s 2030 inclusion targets – 50% women and non-binary representation, and 16% women from global majority backgrounds in leadership – the pledge encourages concrete actions such as reviewing governance structures, improving recruitment practices and improving board diversity.
LIVE said many of the signatories are expanding mentoring schemes and promoting greater representation across event programming. Its head of partnerships Gaby Cartwright (pictured, left) said, “We want to position the Seat at the Table Inclusion Pledge as a proactive, collective shift from data to delivery. The report and the pledge are the foundation, but the real story is about who is taking action and how the sector is evolving together.
“The organisations who have signed the pledge as well as our industry champions will be key to helping to shape what inclusion looks like in practice across the live music ecosystem.”
Women in CTRL founder Nadia Khan (pictured, right) said, “The launch of the Seat at the Table Inclusion Pledge in tandem with the industry champion programme marks a new phase of action and aims to build long-term capacity, especially by supporting smaller organisations who may not yet have formal EDI structures in place.”