It’s now 11 years since the UK’s PRS Foundation launched its ‘Women Make Music’ initiative in 2011, as part of its efforts to increase the representation of women in collecting society PRS for Music’s membership.
Since then it has expanded its remit to include gender-expansive musicians, and has invested more than £1.46m in 380 creators. This morning the foundation has published a report focusing on the impact of the initiative since 2011, and making the case for continued (and, indeed, expanded) funding from now on.
Part of the case for that is the sheer demand for funding: PRS Foundation says that in the last five years, it has only been able to support 6% of the people who have applied.
“When we launched Women Make Music in 2011, I defined ‘success’ as the moment when this fund would no longer be needed,” said Vanessa Reed, the founder of Women Make Music who has since moved on from PRS Foundation to lead New Music USA.
“In an industry that continues to be run by men, this evaluation confirms that there is still much progress to be made.” You can read the full report here.
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