We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristina London a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kristina, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?
Amplify Her Voice started when I was in college in 2019 and I was working my first few jobs in the music industry. I immediately took notice of the gender disparity. – whether it was the lack of women in the room or the very few women booked in the venues I worked at, it became clear that it was a pretty intense issue. I started looking into this more and discovered the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative – an initiative that studies inclusion in entertainment and advocates for equality for disenfranchised and marginalized groups. I found their findings to be absolutely shocking and created an Instagram page dedicated to highlighting women in music and showcasing statistics regarding gender inequality in music. While I never set out to create anything more than an informational blog, the page quickly grew to over 10,000 followers in just a year. Over the next two years I created a website, expanded my team, and started hosting events for more women in the music industry to network and discover opportunities. For me, every small win over the last three years felt like a big success. Whether it was an interview with an artist we love, a partnership with a favorite festival, or just one woman vocalizing their gratefulness for Amplify Her Voice’s mission – the small successes are what makes it feel worthwhile.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up absolutely obsessed with music in the small but mighty state of Maryland. I was born with perfect pitch so from a young age I started playing songs on piano by ear. By high school I taught myself bass, ukulele, and drums. Despite my natural abilities, I never found performing satisfying so when I was in high school I decided to learn more about the music business. I always knew that the only job I would ever do would be in music so pure passion and determination brought me to where I am today. In college I would work merch for local bands, take up as many internships as possible, and work as many part-time music jobs as I could. While working these jobs, I discovered the massive gender disparity within the music industry adn created Amplify Her Voice. Amplify Her Voice is a volunteer organization dedicated to promoting gender equality in the music industry through educational, networking, and creative opportunities. We seek to advance as many women’s careers as we can through these initiatives. I am most proud of the engaging community we’ve created and the opportunities we’ve been able to bring so many women. Navigating the music industry can be difficult without a direct connection so I strive to provide these chances for as many women as possible so they can spend their time thriving instead of endlessly searching for their next opportunity.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
A major goal of mine with Amplify Her Voice is to easily provide accessible resources that I never had when I was starting out with my journey in music. Whether it’s networking advice or direct links to available jobs & internships – we try to streamline the process of searching for opportunities as best as we can.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Managing a team has certainly been a challenge for me. I’m a chronic perfectionist and things that are out of my control give me a lot of anxiety. Overtime I learned that…
1. NO ONE can do their best work with a micro-manger
2. Trust your team to do what’s best
3. Be assertive without being aggressive and be understanding without being a pushover
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amplifyhervoice.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amplifyhervoice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amplifyhervoice/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplify-her-voice/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/amplifyhervoice