Rebekah and Sydney Blu launch campaign to improve gender representation on record labels

Rebekah and Sydney Blu have teamed up to launch a campaign to encourage record labels to add more women artists to their roster.

23by23’s aim is to get labels to commit to having at least 23% women artists on their rosters by 2023. Labels such as Soma, Club Sweat, Toolroom and Gorgon City’s REALM are backing the campaign with the launch of a number of remix competitions and demo challenges on Native Instruments’ Metapop community. These will start from 11th December and run through to 2022.

The pair have also got Ableton on board, with a plan set out to create and host various pieces of online production content in 2022, with a focus on supporting women, trans and non-binary artists.

Speaking about her reasons for launching 23by23, Rebekah said in a statement: “Starting out on many labels as the first women producer nine years ago, it seems that only baby steps have been made in this area to have more women representation. It’s also important to note women of colour are not only underrepresented on dance labels but also affected the most by discrimination so this makes it even more imperative for diversity to be a priority.”

Sydney Blu commented: “I believe in 2021 we need to do better with how we shape, brand and release music, to support a new generation of female producers and create lasting change and equality. I encourage the following question to any A&R rep: Are you making your label a welcome space for women? Do you provide feedback to female submissions? Are you proactively seeking female artists who are producing music similar to the sound of your label? This is the basis of the 23by23 campaign.”

Rebekah’s involvement in 23by23 follows the launch of her #ForTheMusic campaign in 2020, which aimed to raise discussions about, and tackle, sexual harassment and assault in the music industry.