'CMT Equal Play' Campaign Kick-Off Event Featured Newly-Commissioned Research

Last night, CMT officially launched its CMT Equal Play, the brand's year-long initiative to create measurable industry-wide action to dramatically increase female representation in country music and create a path for parity in 2020. The event took place in front of a standing-room only crowd at The Steps at WME's Nashville headquarters.

To kick off the evening, Fram introduced Coleman Insights' Sam Milkman and Jessica Lichtenfeld for an overview of CMT's Equal Play Radio Research, debunking the myth that listeners don't want to hear women on the radio. Released earlier on Tuesday, the new research revealed first-of-its-kind insights into country radio listeners habits and attitudes toward female artists. The duo reiterated top finding from the study, including 84% of all listeners want equal play for female artists and 7 in 10 of listeners want more female artists in country music.

Following the explanation of the research, Fram moderated an open discussion with Milkman, Dr. Jada E. Watson (University of Ottawa), Cody Alan (Host/Executive Producer, CMT Radio) and industry veterans Cris Lacy (Senior Vice President, A&R, Warner Music Nashville) and Mike Molinar (General Manager, Big Machine Music).

Watson discussed her own newly released research in partnership with CMT Equal Play, which found a consistent thread of only 10 percent representation of women on country radio with women receiving one-tenth of all daily spins, annual airplay, Top 20 songs, Top 10 songs, and songs of year-end country radio charts.

CMT Radio's Cody Alan discussed his own 50/50 pledge for female and male artists on CMT Radio Live and expressed the need for more recurrent songs to be in rotations from country legends such as Martina McBride and Reba McEntire to help acclimate listeners to hearing more female voices.

Big Machine's Mike Molinar shared the success female songwriters are finding in the industry, pointing out they represented five of the six Number 1 singles so far in 2020. The group also discussed the need for songs to climb the charts faster, in order to make room for more music and to build strong fan bases for touring artists.

Warner Music Nashville's Cris Lacy referenced the label's roster of top rising female artists Ashley McBryde, Gabby Barrett and Ingrid Andress and the desire for the best talent to succeed, regardless of gender, but shared the difficulties in finding songs for female artists. She also challenged other label executives and managers to pitch songwriting demos with male voices to their female artists.

"Women are fascinating!" Lacy concluded. "I mean, that's what is so crazy about all of this, is that women are so interesting. We have so many stories to tell...They're so open with their feelings and they're so honest, that it's heartbreaking that this is a piece that's missing when we shut them out."

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