blank mood's 2025 Keychange Pledge

Keychange is a global network people and organisations working towards improvements to gender equality in the music industry. Keychange aims to accelerate change towards a more inclusive industry for present and future generations via career development programmes, calls to action and a Manifesto to rally advocates and influence policy.

blank mood is a signatory of the Keychange Pledge, an international campaign for gender equality whereby organisations commit to achieve annual goals. My pledge commits the blank mood show to gender-conscious programming, aiming for at least 50% of songs featured over any calendar year to be the work of artists who identify as women or gender minorities. I also extend this commitment to the blank mood blog. As part of the Keychange Pledge, I also commit to reporting on progress towards my annual goal.

In 2025, blank mood has published four episodes that included a total of 30 songs. Of the 30 songs, 21 (or 70%) were the work of artists who identify as women or people with gender-expansive identities. In 2024, this figure was 69% and in 2023 it was 66% of the year’s programming. On the blog, 37 artists or works were covered in 2025, with about 55% of those involving women artists.

This is a small contribution to the grand scheme of things. I know. A drop in the bucket. Even so, this pledge over the last three years has made me realise many things about not only who makes and distributes music, but who talks about it and how its promoted, as well as insight into my own listening and consumption habits.

You too as an individual, organisation, consumer or creator can make a Keychange Pledge. Even if you don’t want to make a formal commitment to Keychange, they have a list of suggestions of things you can do to “raise the volume” on gender representation in music.

Thanks for reading and listening and for being an advocate.

//wendy