Smirnoff Equalizer tool on Spotify – gimmick or meaningful?
The Smirnoff Equalizer tool continues the plight of the Vodka brand to equalize music, with a new Spotify feature.
According to data directly sourced from Spotify, none of the top 10 most streamed tracks on the platform in 2017 featured female artists or bands.
This, along with the battle to bring forth more gender-neutral line-ups at music festivals, makes one wonder why women struggle to make charts or play at festivals?
Is it because of lack of exposure, our societal prerequisite to favour males, or simply musical (not gender) preference?
Either way, the Smirnoff equalizer tool is on a mission to balance it out and they have just created a tool on Spotify to do just that.
The Smirnoff Equalizer tool analyses a user’s listening habits, providing a breakdown of the percentage of male vs. female artists they listen to.
It will then provide a tailored, gender-balanced playlist, with an option to adjust the amount of women on said playlist.
The Equalizer, tipping the scale
“We developed the Smirnoff Equalizer in partnership with Spotify because we believe that when we get to discover talented women artists and their phenomenal music, we’ll all have a better listening experience,” said Neil Shah, Smirnoff’s Global Senior Brand Manager.
I believe this is a great initiative to bring exposure to talented females- at the end of the day it’s about music, something which should transcend gender roles.
However we need not get into the mindset of defining music by gender, as well as now ignoring talented males just because they have a penis.
Nina Kraviz, who is a techno powerhouse, and a female, doesn’t believe that women should get preferential treatment and that young female DJanes shouldn’t receive a different level of support than young boys.
She adds:
“I just want to support talented people. I’ve been challenged a lot in my professional life. It’s not been always easy, as you might imagine. To be a successful artist requires a lot of effort.”
As a woman in love with the electronic music scene I would love to see more females on lineups and on the charts, if they’re music makes us dance, love and smile.
I think the Spotify Equalizer tool is a great way to expose listeners to amazing music they haven’t been privy to hearing.
We can equalize music all we want, as long as the music stays top notch.
Sourced
