This Women’s Month, many Pakistani women were out to reclaim their right to be heard against cultural gender norms that continue to shape gender roles and limit societal spaces for women. These societal dispositions continue to normalize discrimination against women and downplay their role and contributions to the development of various fields of life. From science and philosophy to art and culture, women face inequity and thus appear to be holding a lower pedestal in the male-dominated society.
The Equal Destination:
The world of art is no different. Studies show that women artists in the US and Europe still face discrimination and get little exposure and space to showcase their work. It is, therefore, safe to assume that our part of the world wouldn’t be much different.
It is normal for women artists globally to receive far lesser remunerations as compared to their male counterparts. Here in Pakistan and in many countries, pay disparities between men and women doing the same work hardly raises an eyebrow. Also, the women singers and musicians get limited opportunities and platforms to showcase their talent and therefore get a lot lesser exposure and recognition for their work.
Swedish audio streaming platform, Spotify supported USC Annenberg’s study on representation of women in the music industry informs that currently only one out of five artists on the charts is a woman. The disparity is shocking and doesn’t sit well with the cherished ideals of equity and diversity of the new world.
Being aware of this ongoing gender disparity led Spotify to dedicate an exclusive music hub ‘EQUAL’ to women artists to amplify their voices and help them find new audiences and exposure. Spotify is the world’s largest audio streaming platform and music hub that serves audiences across 184 markets globally.
EQUAL Pakistan
As EQUAL continues to expand around the world, with the launch of new markets such as Pakistan and MENA, each market has their exclusive EQUAL destinations on the hub, that connect women singers with millions of fans around the globe, besides helping them find new audiences across new markets.
This International Women’s Day, Spotify launched its EQUAL Pakistan hub for Pakistani women singers to expand their horizons far and wide globally. The platform appointed the talented Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab as the ambassador of EQUAL Pakistan, whereas Pakistani music maestro Abida Parveen, along with talented artists like Zahra Paracha, Wooly and the Uke, Annural Khalid, Maria Unera, Amna Riaz, and others feature on the hub.
The dedicated space makes it super convenient for fans to find their favorite singers and explore their best songs all in one place, besides helping connect new listeners and explorers from newer markets to grow the fan base of these artists globally.
Spotify entered Pakistan’s market in 2021 and Pakistani music fans were visibly overjoyed by this development. As the world’s most popular music streaming platform, Spotify features more than 82 million songs, therefore it is the right place to groove to discover new music well as the nostalgia triggering songs from the distant past that you may have failed to find anywhere else.
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