ROSTR, She Is The Music Report: Less Than 30% of Signed Creators Are Women

ROSTR has partnered with global nonprofit She Is The Music on a data report highlighting the gender gap across the IP-generating creative economy – from creators signed to record labels, publishers, management companies and booking agencies to the organizations representing them. The report can be downloaded here.

Why it matters:

• When women are underrepresented on these rosters, the industry risks underinvesting in creative voices, audiences, cultural perspectives, and revenue opportunities that could strengthen the entire music ecosystem.

Key statistics:

• Of the qualifying companies and professionals analyzed across ROSTR’s dataset, women represent only 29.7% of rostered IP-generating creators.

• The gender disparity is reflected among the professionals representing creators, with women accounting for only 26.7% of managers, and 25.9% of agents.

The 50% Club:

• ROSTR and She is the Music celebrate the 63 companies and professionals that have reached gender parity with their roster, and they are recognized in the report as the 50% Club.

• Scale is not a barrier, with three agencies with more than 100 creators crossing the 50% threshold.

• Of the individual managers, Sebastian LeTellier of Raw Material has the largest percentage of women on his roster at 81.8%.

• Shirin Nury of CAA is leading the way for agents, with her roster comprising 78.8% women.

• Among management companies, Sandbox Entertainment features the highest percentage of women at 66.7%.

• Mouthwatering Records is the only record label to have reached gender parity, with 55.9% of its roster comprising women.

• The report also covers the major agencies, music labels and publishers, with CAA (38.6%), Universal Music Group (34.2%) and Concord (35.8%) boasting the highest representation of women on their rosters.

Fixing the mix:

• The report outlines a goal of achieving gender parity by 2030.

• It includes six recommendations for companies that sign, represent, employ, and invest in talent.

• One is to track women’s representation across creator rosters, new signings, hiring, promotions, leadership, investment, ownership participation, and attrition; another is to make every new decision a move toward parity, setting a goal of at least 50% women across new signings and hires.

What they said:

• Katie Holmes, ROSTR COO: “ROSTR is proud to partner with She Is The Music on this report, which surfaces a hard truth: women make up only 29.7% of rostered IP-generating creators. To help close that gap, we're pledging $63,000 in ROSTR Pro subscriptions to support She Is The Music's work in honor of the 63 companies and professionals already in the 50% Club, where each company roster is made up of at least 50% women. This pledge will grow every time another company has a qualifying roster of 50% women."

• Laura Segura, Executive Director of She Is The Music: “The imbalance we see on charts, festival stages and credits starts long before the spotlight—it starts with who gets signed, represented, and backed. This report looks upstream at those career-shaping decisions, because more equitable rosters can change both the creativity and the economics of music.”