General | by Angela Peltner | 26. March 2024

Inclusivity in the music industry: the mentoring initiative MEWEM for FLINTA*s

The mentoring initiative MEWEM for FLINTA*s

Once again, the Verband unabhängiger Musikunternehmer:innen e.V, VUT for short, is organizing this year’s MEWEM Germany. But what exactly is MEWEM, and what is its purpose?

MEWEM is a European project to support female, trans and non-binary people in the music industry. The programme was founded by the French organization FÉLIN in cooperation with VUT and LABA in 2018 and was inspired by VUT’s Music Industry Women, a network and mentoring programme for women in the music industry. Today there are four more European countries involved in the programme.

Questions, training and a lot of support

Women and non-binary people with years of experience in the music industry are chosen as mentors and through specific training prepared for their roles. Afterwards they are linked with FLINTA*s, who are still at the beginning of their careers in the music industry. For a period between three and six months they share their knowledge with their mentees, answer their questions and support them as FLINTA*s in the music industry. The mentors also get to know different perspectives through the collaboration with new talent, and are given the opportunity to grow individually and professionally through their roles.

The project is a targeted effort to grow the share of FLINTA*s in the music industry, especially when it comes to leading positions and entrepreneurs. The theoretical basis for the project is amongst other things provided by the report “Women in the U.S. Music Industry”, which shows the benefits of mentoring for women in the music industry. It reports on higher satisfaction and better wages for women who used to be mentees. The goal is, alongside the support of individual FLINTA, the optimization of the mentoring programme as a prototype for similar projects of other european countries.

What is next for MEWEM?

VUT is currently in the planning phase for the next round of MEWEM Germany, but news about the application period should be coming in soon. Anyone interested in applying for MEWEM 2024 can subscribe to VUT’s newsletter in order not to miss the start of the application deadline. Of course, we will also publish an article on the application process once the time comes.