Pretend is a platform for everyone. We want to reflect this in the music we cover, the events we put on and in the team that makes it all possible. This is something we’ve always said but now is time to put it in writing, a set of standards against which to judge ourselves. Having these in writing allows us to hold ourselves accountable and improve as we look to build a better kind of music platform.
We commit to:
- A 50/50 gender split across all our coverage with allowances made for non-binary artists and creators.
- For interviews, features and videos where we focus on just one artist we’ll assess this over three month periods.
- For playlists and radio shows we will feature a gender balanced selection of artists every time we put one out.
- For our shows we will never have an entirely cis-male led line up and look to have a gender balance across every 4 events.
- We will use the term “Women” as opposed to “Womxn” unless specifically requested to do otherwise as it is our understanding that the term “Womxn” can be perceived as othering.
- Represent music and creators from all races and respect that the roots of most of the music we cover did not originate in straight, white communities.
- Encourage, support and help develop people from underrepresented backgrounds (both socio-economic and geographic) to be a part of the Pretend team.
- Ensure our events are safe spaces for everyone by working closely with venues and ensuring our team are trained to deal with instances of assault and harassment that may occur.
If you think anything is missing from our commitments then please don’t hesitate to get in touch and help us improve what we are doing.