Both on the international and Norwegian lists, men dominate radio. Among the most played main artists are Ed Sheeran, Astrid S, Alan Walker and Dagny. Use of recorded music on the radio and in public spaces generates money for these artists, through the organization Gramo. According to Gramo’s annual report, the payments for 2022 were distributed as follows: 77.75% to men, 22.25% to women. Radio is an important arena – I didn’t know it was so crazy, says Line Dybedal about the skewed distribution in the statistics. She herself is an artist and songwriter living in Selje. news P1 and P3 are among the channels that have listed her music. Dybedal says that the ball rolls more easily precisely because the music is in rotation on the radio. Such visioning can, for example, lead to new assignments. Artist Line Dybedal thinks the queer distribution on radio is sad, – There are many good female artists to choose from. Photo: Jørn-Arne Tomasgard For artists and songwriters, playing time on the radio is important for several reasons. It is not only a source of income but also recognition to have the music assessed by a music producer on the radio. The artist from Selje believes that a goal for radio should be a more even balance. Part of their responsibility is to present good female artists to the promising young people, those who may want to become musicians themselves. – Development takes time, but we have to start somewhere. For example, a serious platform like radio, says the songwriter. A slow development Only in 2016 did female athletes receive more than twenty percent of the remuneration. Since then it has slowly grown to a peak of twenty-two to twenty-three percent. In seven years, the proportion has only increased by 2–3 per cent. Communications manager at Gramo Rita Mamelund says the radio talk reflects the gender balance among their members. The organization states that they have over 39,000 members. Gramo’s main task is to collect and distribute payment to performing artists and record producers, when they are played on the radio. – It would have been nice if the remuneration was distributed more equally between the sexes, says the communications manager. Asking the industry to take action Gramo’s statistics mainly cover the news channels, as well as P4 and Radio Norge. Head of music at news, Mats Borch Bugge, agrees that the proportion of women on the playlists is too low. As music director, he is responsible for news’s music offering on all platforms. Music manager Mats Borch Bugge says news supports both women and men in Norwegian music. Photo: Julia Marie Naglestad/news He believes it is important for the entire radio industry to look at this, and to strive for better numbers in the future. At the same time, Bugge says that speaking at news differs from the overall picture and that the state channel is particularly concerned with gender balance. On P1 and P3, the distribution is roughly the same, and the figures for 2023 are so far very good. Anders Opsahl is program editor at P4, and stated that there were female artists on four of their ten most played songs. In addition, women were also represented as part of a group or duo on several other songs. – When selecting music, I look at what is moving in the market. We also have a listener panel that tells us what they want to hear, writes Opsahl to news. There is hope It cannot be assumed that it is a tough industry, one must show that there are good role models, points out Dybedal. Girls typically become solo instrumentalists or singers, while many sit in their rooms and write good songs. She believes that schools and culture schools have a responsibility to encourage girls to start bands and to choose other instruments. Many young performers first start with music in the cultural school, and there you can find many potential grants for the music industry. According to Grunnskule’s Information System, almost two out of three pupils in the cultural school are girls. Number of pupils in cultural schools Number of pupils in cultural schools for 2022-23 Total: 97,563 Boys: 33,302 (34.13%) Girls: 64,261 (65.87%) The figure is taken from the Primary School’s information system. Although the skewed distribution is still large, Mamelund can also point to a somewhat positive trend in the statistics. A larger part of the payments now goes to artists between twenty and twenty-nine, especially for female performers. It is connected with the fact that those aged between thirty and thirty-nine get less. – It could be the start of a more even distribution, believes the communications manager.
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Only two of the ten most played artists on Norwegian radio last year were women – news Vestland
