A new study from music tech company A2D2 indicates that female DJs play nearly twice as many shows as male DJs.
The study, titled “The Hardest Working DJs of 2023,” compiled show data from Resident Advisor on each of DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs for 2023. Though only 11 female artists were included on DJ Mag’s yearly shortlist, A2D2 has found that they account for 40% of the world’s top 10 “hardest-working” DJs.
“Delving further into the data, we identified that, on average, female DJs gig nearly twice as hard as the men on the list,” the study explains.
A2D2’s data showed that throughout 2023, the average number of gigs for a male Top 100 DJ was 13, while female DJs played an average of 23 shows, shedding serious light on the determination of female artists “to make a mark in an industry historically dominated by males.”
A 2022 study by the transnational dance music database femalepressure found that female acts represented just 26.9 percent of artists performing at electronic music festivals worldwide. As gender equality continues to be a hot topic of discussion in electronic dance music, it is notable that this percentage rose by 17.7 percent over the last decade.
The report from UK-based A2D2 determines that house and techno were the most dominant genres in the UK this year. Over one-third of the Top 100 DJs who played in the country specialized in house, techno, or both. German and Belgian DJs also rose significantly in popularity.
Finally, the A2D2 study determined that German tech house producer and DJ Claptone was the “most hardworking DJ of 2023,” with South African artist Black Coffee one show behind in first place.
The masked artist played 94 total gigs this year in 33 countries–an average of one performance every four days. He has long alluded to working with several DJs who sometimes play in his place, allowing the Claptone act to play two shows at once in completely different parts of the world.
Read A2D2’s complete “Hardest Working DJs of 2023” study here.
Featured image from Pexels.com.
