A group of major associations and booking agents have committed to a gender equality pledge with equality advocacy group Keychange.

PRS for Music, The Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Featured Artist Coalition, the Association of Independent Music, the Music Managers Forum and the Music Publishers Association join the Ivors Academy and the Musicians’ Union to commit to 50/50 board representation of women and under-represented genders.

Booking agency ATC Live and funder Arts Council Northern Ireland also join over 350 organisations now signed up to the Keychange pledge.

This commitment follows the Women in CTRL report on music trade bodies, which further highlighted the lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the industry.

Andrea C. Martin, CEO, PRS for Music, said: “PRS for Music is proud to sign the Keychange pledge in a positive step towards rebalancing the scales of gender equality on our Members’ Council. As an organisation, we look to reflect the broad diversity of our members at every level, and we are committed to investing in meaningful and long lasting change through the PRS Foundation and their impactful talent development programmes. We welcome all new signatories of the pledge, alongside the new ambassadors who will help to spread word of the vital work that Keychange achieves across the global music industry.”

Alex Bruford, Partner, ATC Live, said: “Despite all the challenges that 2020 has brought, at ATC Live we are determined to remain focussed on doing what we can to achieve equality and diversity in our industry. As part of this process we are signing up to the Keychange initiative and will work towards ensuring new additions to our roster and staff include 50% women and underrepresented genders.

“Every year the important conversation around the balance of festival bills and equality on our stages and across our industry resurfaces. We understand that the festivals can’t book the acts if the agents don’t represent them, so we are committing to playing our part in the process of achieving real change.”