Industry Insights: Roberta Hickey chats to us about Little Pink Book and women in music
Hi Roberta!
What is your current role and what does it entail?
I am Head of Artist Relations at Melody VR which is all about letting the industry know about what we offer at Melody and in turn securing some really exciting artists and content for the platform. I am also the founder of women in music platform, Little Pink Book!
What was your path into the industry?
I actually started as a digital planner buyer for brands such as Samsung and Becks. I soon realised the campaigns I was most excited about were anything to do with music so I expanded my digital knowledge to social media via a course and then landed a job doing social media for DJs such as Carl Cox and Yousef. From there I moved into working on music and brand partnerships at a company called LoveLive working with a diverse range of artists including Stormzy, Charli XCX, Foals and Rudimental. I worked there for a year before landing a dream role as label manager at MTV which was amazing and led me to build a lot of industry knowledge and contacts which certainly played a big part in landing the role at Melody.
Tell us about what Little Pink Book does and how it came about?
Little Pink Book was born out of my passion for elevating women in the music industry and my love for curating events. At the time there was a lot of negativity around being a woman in music with campaigns such as Me Too and gender pay gap. These are vitally important and we need to speak about these issues to instigate change but I thought it was also important to showcase great success stories to show young women interested in the industry that they can do great things and to not be put off or discouraged as in the words of Boy Better Know, we need some more girls in here! So, Little Pink Book was born; we run panels, music showcases and parties all with the intention of shining a light on amazing females in the industry and inspiring others.
You’re currently running the Level Up series. Can you tell us what this is and why you think people should get involved?
So we have teamed up with London Sound Academy to run a six-part series of femxle led DJ & Production free workshops and industry insights called Level Up. The whole ethos of the project is to shine a light on females in the industry to hopefully encourage women to follow in their footsteps and help with the strive towards equality. The weekly streams run on Mixcloud Live and they are heavily supporting it with RSVP's running through Dice. People should get involved as DJing and definitely production are still very male dominated and so with Level Up we are showcasing some kick ass women who have done it and who are willing to impart their knowledge for free to encourage more girls to give it a try!
What are the changes you want to see in the music industry?
For me the main thing is to eradicate the stigma around certain roles that they are better suited to men. And for women to see other women in roles such as producer or tour manager and make a decision on what they want to do based on their skills and passion, not how and who has done those roles previously.
What is the most rewarding part of your work at Little Pink Book?
Seeing regular people come back to events, I love that as it shows we are doing something right and makes me feel really proud. Also when people give feedback after events and share their personal journeys and how the event inspired them. It means a lot when people feel they can share and it gives Little Pink Book a community feel that I would love to build on.
Do you have any major plans for the company in the next couple of years?
London Sound Academy has been an incredible partner so it would be great to build on that and see how we can work together more in the future. Just raising awareness of Little Pink Book and growing our network is the main plan really!
Which artists/DJs should people be keeping an eye on?
I absolutely love Jayda G, she is an insane DJ and producer and a whole range of other things, one incredible lady! Also, Sarah Story is a fab DJ, she brings an amazing energy to her sets, she also writes and sings top lines and has started producing as well so another really talented gal to keep your eye on!
