Female artists struggle to make gains in music, study finds Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg FacebookTwitterEmail The Spotify logo is displayed on a smartphone on Oct. 7, 2020.Bloomberg photo by Gabby Jones. Women are songwriters or producers on only a small portion of the most popular songs released each year -- and have made no significant gains in representation over the past nine years -- even as the industry grows more diverse in other ways. That's the finding of a report by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, a University of Southern California professor who studies representation in the entertainment industry. Female artists made just 22% of the top 100 songs released each year between 2012 and 2020, and a far smaller percentage of women served as producers and writers, according to the study released Monday, which was funded by Spotify Technology.