In January, the new Seattle chapter of global nonprofit Women in Music, held a launch event at PublicDisplay.Art in downtown Seattle. Kim Rasori and Heather Johnson, the chapter’s co-chairs, were shocked by the turnout.
“We thought this first one was going to be like 20 or 25 people...that turned into 82 people attending,” Johnson said.
In 1985, the global Women in Music (WIM) organization was started in New York City by a group of women music professionals. Fed up with the lack of women in the industry, and the way they were treated, the group formed WIM to offer women in music more community and opportunity.
Today, WIM global has 25 chapters in the U.S., including in major cities and on a few college campuses, as well as 12 international chapters in countries as far away as Tanzania. Since the pandemic, when a shift to virtual events allowed more people to engage with WIM’s work, the organization has continued to expand.
Seattle’s chapter is one of WIM’s newest offshoots. Seattle WIM will provide local women with access to the parent organization’s resources as well as support tailored to the Seattle market.
‘Now more than ever’
Despite gains made over the last few decades, the music industry is dominated by men. According to a report from the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 14% of the songwriters and 3.4% of the producers represented on the Billboard Top 100 in 2022 were women. Likewise, another Annenberg report from 2021 found that across 70 major and independent music companies only 13.9% of executives were women.
Inequity in music has dire consequences for women. Women in music face discrimination, lack of opportunity, as well as actual threats to their safety because of the industry’s power structure. Women in Music’s mission is to help counteract those challenges.
“Now more than ever, when diversity and equity and inclusion budgets are being cut and divisions are being cut at the federal level, it's really important for us in the private sector to be focused on what we're doing to take care of everyone and make sure that everyone feels a place of belonging in the music business because music shapes culture,” said Nicole Barsalona, president of WIM global.
Currently, WIM works to improve women’s position, representation, and safety in the music industry through four main initiatives.
WIM’s ambassador program recognizes notable women in the industry and hires them to speak at events and advise on WIM initiatives. Additionally, WIM offers a mentorship program so that women in music can support each other with professional development and leadership training.
Mentors and mentees are free to apply no matter their experience level. They are matched using a female-founded platform called Dreami, which factors in their location and area of expertise or curiosity in the music industry.
“If you want a mentor who's in India, you're looking to learn more about the Indian music market, we can do that. Or if you're looking locally, like just in Seattle...we can do that as well,” Barsalona said.
WIM’s also running two programs focused on workplace safety and equity. They offer the Safe(r) Spaces resource directory for women in the industry facing discrimination, sexual harassment, and abuse. They’re also conducting a survey in partnership with a women-owned recruiting and HR platform called InHerSight, with the goal of creating a “best places to work” list for women in music.
Bringing WIM to Seattle
In 2024, after discovering WIM’s work, Johnson and Rasori each emailed the organization independently with the idea of setting up a WIM Seattle chapter.
Johnson, a systems director at Sub Pop Records who spent her time during the pandemic serving virtually on the board at American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), was the first to reach out. She was looking for another way to support the music industry and nurture like minded community in Seattle.
A few months later, Rasori felt similarly moved. She craved more professional community as she worked remotely for the California-based startup, Audible Magic, an intermediary between music rights holders and social media platforms.
“I’ve been working from home since the pandemic and most of my team is out in Los Gatos, so it's felt pretty like isolating in terms of actual community,” Rasori said. “Me and a couple of the women [at Audible Magic] that are also located in Seattle...we were talking about trying to find communities or organizations that we could get involved in. I just stumbled upon Women in Music and saw that they didn't have a Seattle chapter.”
WIM global connected Rasori and Johnson and the pair hit the ground running. By the end of 2024, they’d put an 11-member committee in place and officially launched the chapter.
WIM Seattle’s style
While the January event marked WIM Seattle’s official launch, the co-chairs are still considering how they want to serve the Seattle market outside of the four global WIM initiatives. So far, WIM Seattle’s goals include improving symbiosis between local music and other music-adjacent sectors, busting the “Seattle freeze,” and offering business education for independent musicians.
Since even before the pandemic, musicians and music journalists alike have lamented the decline of the music scene in Seattle. It’s gotten increasingly difficult for musicians to stay here as the cost of living has gone up. The massive influx of technology workers to Seattle over the last decade is a major reason for this shift, with more than one DIY punk song written about the negative impact “techies” have had on Seattle’s culture.
This dynamic doesn’t bode well for the intermingling of independent musicians and technology workers, but Rasori and Johnson, who have backgrounds in tech and music, feel they are well-situated to bridge the divide for women in these industries.
After all, while an independent musician and a software engineer for Amazon Music may not naturally cross paths, they likely share similar passions and the struggle of working in a male-dominated industry. According to a 2022 Seattle Times article, 66.5% of jobs in tech in Seattle are held by men.
”Working a tech job is, you know, half the time [in] my meetings I'm the only woman there,” Rasori said.
WIM Seattle is working to build an organization that is a resource primarily for professional women in music, but they hope to also be a touchpoint for women across various music-related industries, like music publishing, gaming, or software development. By nurturing these connections, they believe opportunities for women can increase across the board.
“We’re trying to connect everyone so we can all work together and help each other out,” Rasori said.
By hosting at least one quarterly networking event, a monthly happy hour, and some regular open mics, WIM Seattle hopes to begin to foster a close knit community for all local women in and around music.
“I know a lot of people who are transplants here. And as we know, the Seattle freeze is a real thing. And in talking to people who are wanting to get involved, obviously networking and empowering [women] is part of that,” Rasori said.
They will up the ante by presenting at least three educational events this year focused on specific topics that local music professionals curious about, particularly as they strive to adapt and grow their music careers in the face of Seattle’s prohibitive cost of living. So far, they’re looking to cover how to manage the rights to your music, collect royalties, and set up a business entity.
“There seems to be a real strong gap in knowledge, but also interest in, understanding publishing...we're also talking about doing something along the lines of getting a couple of the law firms here [to talk about] business setup,” Johnson said.
Deepening local connections
Johnson and Rasori were heartened by the turn out to WIM’s first event. Even Barsalona, who’s kept tabs on many chapter launches over the years, was impressed.
“We’re so excited about WIM Seattle,” Barsalona said. “Obviously, Seattle is such a rich and vibrant music scene. I was...incredibly inspired by the response to the first event they had—the numbers of RSVPs were wild for a first launch event.”
Looking ahead, WIM Seattle is aiming to present a healthy mix of public and members-only events this year. Membership costs $75 per year or $40 per year for students. They’re also running an open survey to the community that they hope will help them determine the needs of existing and potential Seattle WIM members.
“I feel like we're in our like research and discovery mode right now, like how best we can serve the community?,” said Rasori said.
Additionally, Rasori and Johnson are exploring partnerships with other local advocates of women in music like Nikki Barron, who created a private Facebook group in 2018 for those who experience misogyny in music, and Tara Chugh, a Tacoma-based singer-songwriter and co-founder of the organization Momentum Music, which offers resources to independent musicians.
Chugh attended the launch event and despite a little bit of social anxiety going in, she said it felt exciting.
“Leaving, I felt empowered,” she said. “I felt supported and eager to check out the next event and to learn more.”
