News

Six major music companies – Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, Spotify, Apple and Live Nation – have reported an average gender pay gap of 25.3%, as of April 2020.

Companies operating in the UK, which employ more than 250 people, are legally required to share their gender pay stats annually, though this wasn’t enforced last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent figures for the companies, as of April 2020, were: 15.3% at Spotify, 18% at Apple, 25.4% at Sony Music, 29.2% at Universal Music, 30% at Warner Music, and 34.3% at Live Nation.

Having analysed the figures, Music Business Worldwide reports that the average gender pay gap across the three major record labels (Sony, Universal and Warner) was 28.2% as of April 2020, down slightly from the 29.6% average in 2019.

Music Business Worldwide also took a close look at the number of men and women working in various wage brackets at the companies, as well as the bonus figures. At all three major labels, the difference in bonuses paid to men and women was around 50%.

At Spotify, women were paid 40.3% less than their male counterparts, on average, while the figure at Apple was slightly less, at 33%.

Apple and Spotify have both shared their gender pay gap reports with additional comments from the companies. You can read the reports here (Apple) and here (Spotify).

Spotify recently launched a new section devoted to DJ mixes on the streaming platform.