Spotify’s EQUAL is pushing for safer and fairer music spaces

At Spotify’s archetypal EQUAL Day successful India, fashionable Hindustani vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, reflecting connected however women performers proceed to navigate a male-dominated euphony industry, recalled an incidental during a video sprout wherever she was asked to deterioration thing much glamorous to garner views. “I refused,” she said, adding that contempt coming from a philharmonic lineage, carving a abstraction for herself has not been easy. “The lineage is usually passed connected from a begetter to a son. Why don’t we speech astir a ‘mothership’ successful the industry?” she asked.

“There are truthful galore talented women who don’t ever person the visibility oregon opportunities they deserve, particularly successful an manufacture wherever being seen and heard tin beryllium challenging,” said Shillong-based instrumentalist Meba Ofilia. “Representation matters, peculiarly successful an manufacture wherever galore voices stay underrepresented,” added Nagaland-based instrumentalist Temsu Clover.

Safety and inclusion successful the workplace, vocation growth, mentorship, and work-life equilibrium — these are among the cardinal challenges Indian women successful euphony look today. These themes shaped the conversations astatine EQUAL Day. India was among 9 planetary cities to big the lawsuit successful 2026, including Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Paris, Johannesburg, Berlin, and New York.

Launched successful 2021, EQUAL was created to code the challenges women successful euphony often look — less opportunities, constricted visibility and unequal access. “EQUAL is our planetary programme dedicated to diverseness successful music. It was designed to beforehand equity for women successful the manufacture year-round,” said Amarjit Batra, managing director, India, and GM, SAMEA, Spotify.

“In the 5 years since it began, EQUAL has supported implicit 1,400 women ambassadors worldwide — from planetary superstars to emerging artistes — crossed much than 40 markets, including India. Further, EQUAL artists person collectively seen much than 50 cardinal editorial streams connected Spotify,” added Bel Aztiria, Lead, Global Music Programs, Spotify. To people its five-year milestone, Spotify has besides introduced Spotify EQUAL: The Podcast, a caller artiste-led video bid that extends EQUAL’s ngo into deeper storytelling and taste conversations.

The day-long event, comprising workshops, masterclasses, sheet discussions and performances, had the assemblage celebrating, learning with and listening to immoderate of the unthinkable women who marque up India’s euphony industry. The archetypal sheet treatment connected Women Shaping India’s Music Industry, had Shilpa Sharda arsenic moderator and Raashi Sanghavi, Yama Seth and Shilpi Gupta arsenic panelists. The treatment explored however women are influencing and redefining India’s euphony scenery crossed endowment management, originative strategy, artiste improvement and culture. The 2nd panel, connected ‘Safety of women successful the euphony industry’ moderated by Akhila Shankar with Kaushiki Chakraborty, Meghana Bhogle and Anushka Nain, focused connected the value of creating safer, much supportive environments for women crossed the euphony industry. This was followed by an informal networking session.

“When women artistes from antithetic backgrounds, languages and cultures are fixed visibility connected planetary platforms, it opens doors not conscionable for us, but for an full procreation watching. It creates abstraction for much authentic stories, divers voices, and reminds women that they bash not person to acceptable into 1 thought of what an artiste should be,” shared vocalist and composer Rashmeet Kaur, who performed astatine the event.

“Such initiatives promote a much inclusive euphony culture, wherever antithetic stories, sounds and backgrounds are celebrated. I judge this benignant of enactment tin genuinely reshape the existent scenery for women artistes and animate the adjacent procreation to judge determination is abstraction for them too,” said Clover.