Keychange has officially released its Keychange Pledge Report 2023-2025, providing one of the most comprehensive looks at gender balance and intersectional inclusion in the global music industry to date.

The report highlights a significant milestone: 50.7% of reporting organizations met their gender balance targets in 2025. However, the data reveals a “tale of two industries,” where high-level commitment is clear, but structural and regional gaps remain a challenge.

The Key Findings

  • Progress is Achievable: The proportion of signatories meeting their targets has remained high, with 67.7% in 2023 and 67.4% in 2024.
  • Beyond the Stage: In 2025, one-third of signatories committed to intersectional pledges covering race, class, and accessibility. Of those, nearly 79% reported substantial progress.
  • The Festival Lead: Festivals continue to lead the charge, making up 48% of all reporting signatories.
  • Structural Hurdles: Financial pressures, market inequalities, and a lack of gender diversity in technical and leadership roles are cited as the primary factors slowing down universal change.

“Pledge signatories are increasingly embedding systemic intersectional inclusion in their gender equity work, highlighting the crucial shift beyond stage visibility, to internal organisational culture and infrastructure for long-term change.” — Aysha Hussain, Pledge Co-Manager

What’s Next?

The insights from this report are directly fueling the next phase of the Keychange movement. Coming soon is the Keychange Toolkit and a new Online Signatory Environment, designed to give organizations the practical benchmarking and peer-learning tools they need to turn “commitment” into “accountability”.

Additionally, with International Women’s Day on the horizon, Keychange will soon announce its 2026 Talent Leadership Programme cohort, focusing on the next generation of underrepresented music leaders.

You can download the full research report and explore the data at the Keychange website.