The governing body of the Grammy Awards has invited 900 new members as it aims to become a more diverse organization.
Each of the people who received invitations from The Recording Academy are members of the music industry who are either female, non-white, under 40 years old, or fit into several of those categories, according to Billboard.
The Recording Academy extended the invitations after receiving suggestions from the Task Force on Diversity & Inclusion, which was created by the organization earlier this year.
"We're living through a moment where we're seeing a national culture change on these issues. The music industry and Recording Academy are not immune to that," Tina Tchen, chair of the task force, told Billboard. "What specifics things they are probably too early for me to say other than for me to observe that the industry and Academy exists in a broader world that is currently going through what I hope will be a true reflection point and true cultural change overall in how we view our leadership and our talent across the board."
The lack of female representation in the music industry was highlighted in January when only one female artist _ Alessia Cara _ won a major award at the Grammys.
Neil Portnow, president of The Recording Academy, garnered backlash when he suggested to reporters after the show that it was to women "step up" in the industry. He later apologized and introduced the task force.
Portnow has since said he is stepping down from his position next year.
In January, the University of California's Annenburg School put out a study stating only 9.3 percent of Grammy nominees between 2013-18 were female. The Recording Academy later refuted the findings, saying the USC study only included five categories, and that they found 17 percent of nominees over that stretch were women.
The Nominations Review Committees, which vote for the Grammy nominees, are currently 51 percent female and 48 percent non-white, according to Billboard, which is up from 28 percent female and 37 percent non-white last year.
