Amplifying Women in Dance Music [Series Pilot]

Here at Transistor, we’ve noticed just as well as anyone else the disparity in representation of women and other marginalised groups in the dance music scene.

This challenge starts from top to bottom, as per the Seat at the Table report for 2025; only 41% of board members from their membership organisations were women or non-binary.

Research from the Women Musicians Insight Report in 2024 suggested that 51% of women in music have been discriminated against for their gender, and just 5% of dance music featured in the UK charts had exclusively female or non-binary artists as the primary artist.

The safety of female and LGBTQ+ acts are also coming into question, with TSHA saying in the Jaguar Foundation Report, “I used to dress like a teenage boy, and some of my friends still do that because they're afraid of, like, being told that they only get booked because they look feminine.” 

Nia Archives, a pioneer of the recent jungle revival, said, “It's ridiculous to be honest with you. But you know, it's quite a boys' club.” This supports the findings that industry-wide, women accounted for only 29.8% of festival performers in 2024.

Twinned with this, prominent artists such as Saint Ludo and Effy took to Instagram to speak out on their treatment in the scene, detailing online harassment and hate judging their appearances as well as their DJing abilities. Producer and DJ Riva even detailed that “You can be DJ-ing and are literally having to watch your drink at the same time” following bad experiences of harassment behind the decks at her gigs.

This needs to change. At Transistor, we aim to continue supporting female and under-represented artists in their artistic journey. Our inbox is always open for demos, so regardless of your background, if you have great music to share, we're all ears!