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Of this one million, 728k+ are solo acts. Today, 79% of these solo acts use he/him pronouns, 18% use she/her pronouns and 3% use they/them and other pronouns.
women now make up 33% of this top tier, up from just 26% in 2020.While the gap remains, the growth signals a shifting landscape where female artists are increasingly breaking through into the industry’s most visible and influential ranks. It's a reminder that change is possible—but also that there's still work to be done.
from 17% at undiscovered to around 28% for superstar and legendary.On the other hand, they/them pronouns experience a decline of nearly 5% across stages.
Though men dominate at every stage, women and non-binary artists are still managing to break through the noise. Especially at the undiscovered stage, which accounts for nearly two thirds of our dataset.
Most-used movie tracks are by 50% bands, 35% solo men, 15% solo women. Of the three sync ecosystems, video games show the greatest gender disparity: 49% of featured solo artists are men, while only 6% are women.
risen by 3% since the pre-pandemic era, with he/him acts also seeing a modest 2% increase.This change appears to be fueled by a notable decline in bands on festival lineups, a trend that aligns with the rising global cost of touring. In this tightening economic climate, visibility is becoming more attainable for individual artists, particularly women and non-binary acts. Similarly, bands used to dominate festival lineups in 2019, but by 2024, their numbers were replaced by solo artists.
Tracks released by bands have also decreased - a near 8%. This has given room for the increase in solo female and male artists, with +2% and +5%, respectively.
Though these figures only account for solo male and female artists, the prevalence of solo members from large regional pop groups may allude to smaller gaps, particularly in East Asian countries.
Male artists in these genres still experience a significantly greater number of plays than women.
That being said, women are thriving in other genres such as r&b and soul, receiving as many as 11M+ times more plays than artists using he/him pronouns. This is likely due to the latest cohort of women ushering in success through authenticity and honesty.
United Arab Emirates (10), Ukraine (9), and Saudi Arabia (8).Thanks to the recent success of many solo-female artists within Latin music, South America also emerges as an impressive scene for women at the top.
All pronouns are pulled from public bios on social media and streaming platforms. Due to the dynamic nature of personal identifiers, pronouns listed may be outdated or incorrect. We focus on pronouns because they’re often publicly shared—and we don’t want to make assumptions about anyone’s gender identity. Here are specific notes for each section:
Top Male Artists
Social media audience demographics of top male artists by Chartmetric rank
Top Female Artists
Social media audience demographics of top female artists
by Chartmetric rank
Social Audience
Among the top 10 male artists by Chartmetric score, female followers outnumbered male followers for all but three—
Drake, Eminem, and KendrickLamar. Meanwhile, the top 10 female artists saw female fans dominate across the board.This pattern highlights the strength and consistency of female fandom culture, particularly their roles in driving artist engagement on social platforms. In today’s music economy, where digital presence often fuels career momentum, the loyalty and enthusiasm of female fans continue to shape who rises to—and stays at—the top.