Spotify launches EQL Studio Residency programme for female engineers and producers

21 August 2018

Music streaming giant Spotify is throwing its weight behind emerging female audio professionals with the launch of a "studio residency programme" in London, Nashville and New York in partnership with Berklee College of Music and Electric Lady Studios.

The company’s director of cultural impact Kerry Steib vows that "this is just the beginning.”

The programme starts this October and will offer six-month, paid residencies in New York, Nashville, and London for one participant in each city.

The New York resident’s time will be split between Electric Lady Studios and Spotify’s own studios, while the Nashville and London-based participants will work in Spotify’s Secret Genius Studios.

"Women are underrepresented as artists, songwriters, engineers and producers," says Steib. "We have to use our resources to create opportunities to address this, and do it with great partners across the industry. This is just the beginning."

Adds Dean of the Professional Education Division at Berklee Darla Hanley: "This exciting collaboration recognises the many contributions women make in the music industry.

"We are happy to support and mentor the recipients of the EQL Studio Residency and look forward to sharing our expertise and many decades of combined experience across all corners of the industry with them.”

Electric Lady Studios general manager and partner Lee Foster says: “Electric Lady is thrilled to partner with Spotify’s EQL Studio Residency alongside Berklee College of Music in encouragement of more women in audio production. We are strong supporters of this movement and look forward to meeting the next generation of women engineers and producers.”