Call for applications: Mentorship for women in dance music

RCRDSHP, pronounced “record shop”, is a platform for electronic music enthusiasts that promotes digital collectibles from global dance music artists and brands. The platform aims to lead the way in supporting artists fairly by creating an entirely new revenue stream for them.

The four-week programme is looking for five candidates who will get access to four workshops led by RCRDSHP partners including top labels, artists and producers. The workshops will include one-on-one coaching sessions where highly respected expert mentors will share their experiences and insider tips about the music industry. The participants will work on a new song that will be made available on the RCRDSHP platform for purchase at the end of April

The sessions will be followed by a studio event where the community will work with RCRDSHP’s 3D artist and art director Paulina Lara to help design the digital collectibles for the mentees’ tracks. This studio event is similar in style to the platform’s Participate to Create events – a collaborative initiative that enables artists and fans to work together on the creation of music and art and engage in real time through interviews, sets and a community voting system.

How it works

• Interested participants must set up a page and then submit a song and their portfolio on LabelRadar. This demo should be of an original track that embodies who you are as an artist.
• The mentors and a representative from RCRDSHP will then assess all applications and pick five winning female artists who will then be admitted to the programme.
• The mentorship programme kicks off on 30 March 2022, and requires participation in a weekly, one-hour sessions with the mentors.
• If selected, a team member from RCRDSHP will make contact via email by 18 March.

Interested artists can apply here before 15 March at 10pm CAT.

RCRDSHP released a special International Women’s Day non-fungible token (NFT) project, which features exclusives from artists including Crystal Waters, the voice behind the 1991 classic hit 'Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)’. Waters has served up big tracks with more than 100 million streams on Spotify and YouTube.

“I am so excited for this next chapter in music, I truly believe a platform such as RCRDSHP can be a game changer in the industry and in artists’ careers. I can't wait to see the outcome and am grateful to be on this journey surrounded by all these extraordinary women,” Waters said.

Other featured artists include DJ, producer and singer-songwriter JES, EDM innovator and platinum-selling singer Lena Leon and pioneering drum and bass artist and songwriter DJ Rap. All proceeds from the project will be donated to an organisation that supports women in music. 

“As a woman that has been working in this industry for the past 17 years, I have experienced first hand the inequality that women face on a professional and personal level,” RCRDSHP co-founder and senior vice-president of partnerships Paula van der Waerden said. “In order to achieve equality, it is important that we all showcase and support female talent”.

Lena Leon said: “Women in dance are often an afterthought. We’re frequently seen as only a ‘feature’, unfairly compensated for our time, and sometimes uncredited for songs we wrote and helped produce.”

Throughout March, RCRDSHP will further celebrate all of the women signed to the platform by highlighting them with social media spotlights, daily drops of special packs and live-streamed content on Twitch such as artist Q&As and a line-up of female DJs.