Founder’s Note —

We’re moving to a new home. And you’re all invited.

Dear community,

Today is a big day. shesaid.so is turning six next month, and to celebrate, we are moving house.

As I ponder on these past few years, I’m filled with wonder and gratitude. What started as an invitation that went out to about 15 women I knew in the industry at the time has today become a global community of 10,000+ women and gender minorities in the music industry across 18 official chapters and 100+ cities around the world.

From our humble beginnings in London, we have built an online home that enabled us to connect with one another, share advice, support other women and gender minorities, find work, make our feminist work an intersectional one, get inspired, engage with different perspectives, and ultimately build the community that we are today.

Since launching the original shesaid.so google group in September 2014, we have —

• Amassed 12,000 members across 18 chapters around the world
• Hosted 300+ events in 40+ cities
• Launched a conference in Portugal
• Formed 50+ industry-wide partnerships including partners such as Google/YouTube Music, Sonos, Live Nation, Universal Music Group, Spotify, Shazam, Kickstarter, British Council, and so many more
• Helped 250+ members find jobs
• Helped a handful of members raise $2M+ for their businesses
• Worked with 400+ mentors and mentees as part of she.grows mentoring schemes
• Released an industry-first report on bias and discrimination
• Helped design a world-leading 3-year training and mentoring program for 150+ women in Brazil
• Launched and hosted 3 annual awards
• Released the world’s first library music album entirely made by women with Universal Production Music (the licensing arm of Universal Music Group)
• Launched 2 radio shows in Los Angeles and Barcelona
• Launched a monthly mix series featuring 24 episodes and counting
• Designated 2 Committees: Intersectionality & Parenthood
• Launched a blog featuring regular fresh content from the community
• Plus so much more impact that we’re not even aware of because when you connect people with shared beliefs, anything is possible.

You asked, and we listened —

+You told us you wanted better ways in which you can connect with other members.

+You said you’d like to be able to connect with people of all genders in the industry, whilst preserving a distinct safe space for women and gender minorities.

+You have been a member of shesaid.so from our humble beginnings or you might have only just heard of us.

+You might not be a member of shesaid.so and you want to be involved in other ways.

+You are here because you want to be a part of the change.

+You are here, co-creating a better future where our planet is cared for, and so are all of its inhabitants, in equitable ways.

Today we are excited to share with you all our new home on Patreon.

This is our response to your desire to connect with people of all genders in the music business, while keeping our community hub as a separate safe space for women and gender minority members only. Patreon will also enable us to get support from other individuals and organizations who don’t necessarily qualify (or want to qualify) for ALICE or NINA memberships and want to use their position of power to support shesaid.so as well as women and gender minorities in their group.

With your continued support, we will be able to stay alive and independent after a 60% loss in our income due to the pandemic.

Our goal here is to bring together the largest community of allies in the music industry and slowly build more bridges between people of all genders and backgrounds in music so we can all contribute towards this shared goal in a collaborative way. Upon joining Patreon, ALICE and NINA members will also be invited to join the new shesaid.so community hub for women and gender minorities.

If you’re an existing ALICE or NINA member, please contact our team at hello@shesaid.so who will help you with your transition to the new hub in the smoothest way possible.

This community has grown far beyond our humble beginnings and now we need your support to continue building on the humble work that we kicked off in London 6 years ago.

To get started, please visit our Patreon page and follow the next steps from there. We cannot wait to welcome you to our new home.

With love, /AM x