Gendered Playlists : FAQ

What is this?

This project came about from recurring conversations about how some people favour female voices, while others may prefer male artists- as well as helping anyone find out if their music taste has latent bias, it highlights gender disparity in the music industry.

Where do I get a Spotify playlist's URL?

  • On the Spotify mobile app, click on the three dots and choose Share > More > Copy
  • On the Spotify desktop application, right-click on the playlist's name or thumbnail and choose Share > Copy link to playlist
  • On the Spotify web app, right-click on the playlist's name or thumbnail and choose Copy link to playlist

What is the average representation of females in popular music?

As can be seen on the page for last year's Spotify Top Tracks of 2024, about 29% of performers in the 2024 top list were female (or a group consisting of at least one female).
According to research by USC Annenberg's Inclusion Initiative on similar data:
Women were more likely to appear on the Hot 100 chart of 2022 (30%) than 2021 (23.3%) or 2012 (22.7%). This is an over time gain of 7.3 percentage points from 2012 to 2022. While this is progress, women are nowhere near their proportion in the U.S. population (50.5%).

Where does the gender or group classification for an artist come from?

The classification is determined based on Musicbrainz data; Musicbrainz is a public, user-curated database, and is therefore not exhaustive or necessarily accurate.

Why can't I see all the artists of a playlist?

Gendered Playlists only retrieves the 100 first artists of a playlist, regardless of how large it is.

Why is the gender or group classification for an artist inaccurate?

The gender data, and whether an artist is an individual or a group, is determined based on Musicbrainz data; Musicbrainz is a public, user-curated database, and is therefore not exhaustive or necessarily accurate.
It's also sometimes difficult to easily fetch or calculate the correct gender for an artist, such as:
  • If multiple artists share the same name
  • If the artist is a band that has changed its lineup over time or disbanded
  • If multiple artists are featured on a song (in this case, the first artist is selected)

Why is the gender or group classification for an artist missing?

The gender data, and whether an artist is an individual or a group, is automatically retrieved from the Musicbrainz database. Musicbrainz is a public, user-curated database, and is therefore not exhaustive. It's common for a less well-known artist to have missing information if nobody has had the inclination or time to add it.

How about other under-represented groups, or similar reports on songwriters or music producers?

There is no data available in Musicbrainz on the ethnicity, neuro-diversity, etc. of an artist, and the existing Musicbrainz data on music industry actors other than performers is extremely sparse. If another queryable source of data exists, please let me know!