Saffron is a music tech initiative aiming to redress the gender imbalance in the music tech industry.

The Bristol-based initiative supports women anywhere in the world to get involved in music production, sound engineering and DJing through training courses and workshops that it offers both in-person and online.

Saffron’s aim is to advance gender equality in the music tech sector by creating a safe space for women, non-binary people and other minority genders to learn and build confidence.

According to statistics by USC Annenberg, less than 5% of the music tech industry is comprised of women, non-binary or trans people. Less than 1% of these are women of colour.

Saffron’s website states it’s “on a mission to change those stats through meaningful, long-term, and far-reaching projects”. To do that, it is working alongside global music tech companies including Spitfire Audio, Pioneer DJ, Abbey Road Studios.

Saffron was founded in 2015 by Laura Lewis-Paul. It initially started out as a record label before branching out into training and artist development programmes.

In an interview with Novation Music, Laura Lewis-Paul said: “We’re changing the face of historically male-dominated spaces. We’re curating festival stages and events programmes which are showcasing and highlighting ‘other’ kinds of producers, engineers and more working in the industry.”

Saffron

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about entertainments and storytelling of all kinds.