Georgia Maq is the co-founder of Australian band Camp Cope, who will be playing their final show in October. Ahead of that, she delivered a keynote speech at Australian music-industry conference Bigsound this week, which the Guardian has reprinted in full.
It outlines the misogyny experienced by the group and their fans over their career, and the steps they took to combat it. Maq also summarised the changes she thinks are necessary in the industry.
“We need more women in leadership roles and in roles like production and engineering. We need people to listen to women when we come out about abusive men in the industry and we need to hold those men accountable,” she said.
“We need streaming platforms to pay artists fairly for our music because they would be nothing without us. We need more women on festival lineups and we need them on the main stage, not just playing the side stage at midday.”
“We need venues to stop taking merch cuts, because what the hell did they do to earn that? We need Australian radio stations to support and play Australian artists. We need a minimum wage for musicians, mental health care and a union that will fight for us.”
Maq continued: “We need sexual assault and harassment at gigs to stop, and this starts and ends with men: women have done everything we can, now it’s your turn. And oh my God, we need musicians who are women to stop being disregarded after they turn 30; this never happens to men.”
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