How Girls Make Beats Is Shaping The Future Of The Music Industry

Growing up in Miami in the ’90s and early ’00s, Tiffany Miranda didn’t think much about producers or audio engineers. She loved music, but she mostly cared about singers with big voices, such as Mya, Lil’ Mo, or the Motown legends she learned about through her father. In high school, as she discovered her own vocal talents, Miranda gravitated toward jazz greats like Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, all of whom, perhaps not coincidentally, were also activists.

It wasn’t until Miranda landed her first record deal as a teenager that she became aware of what happens behind the scenes. She was signed to Luke Records, the label founded by Miami hip-hop icon Luther “Luke” Campbell, and she soon found herself in rooms with male producers who had total creative control.

“I was told to sing softer, sing sexier, cuter, be smaller,” Miranda tells Genius. “And I have a really big voice … When I sing, I love to belt. So it was very frustrating for me to not have that creative control over where the music was going. I was often told, ‘OK, you need to dress like this. You need to sing about this. You need to talk like this. You need to be more like this girl.’ And it was something that was so far left from what I envisioned myself doing.”

These experiences would ultimately lead Miranda to create Girls Make Beats, a nonprofit organization committed to helping young women become producers, engineers, and DJs. This work is vital: According to a 2021 USC Annenberg study, only 2.6% of the producers credited on the most popular songs in America during a recent six-year period (2012, 2015, 2017, and 2018–2020) are women. There‘s an attitude in the industry that women can’t do this type of work, and Miranda knows it’s not true. She’s living proof.

After those early encounters with domineering male producers, Miranda vowed to build her own home studio and learn the art of recording. She got some help from Cool & Dre, the production duo behind songs like Ja Rule’s 2004 hit “New York,” featuring Fat Joe and Jadakss, and The Game’s 2004 smash “Hate It Or Love It,” featuring 50 Cent. Miranda sang hooks for Cool & Dre and visited their first studio, ready to take notes.

“I remember being in Cool’s mom’s garage, and he had all these records,” Miranda said. “I remember being so inspired by their setup, and that they were able to make such awesome beats, like, literally in their house. I remember looking at their keyboard and the software program that they were using and asking a lot of questions. ‘What program is that, Pro Tools? OK, I need to learn that. What keyboard is that, a Triton? OK, I need one of those.’”

Miranda took a telemarketing job and saved money until she was able to buy the gear she needed. Since YouTube tutorials weren’t yet a thing, she learned how to use her newly acquired hardware and software by taking the bus down Kendall Drive in Miami—45 minutes with traffic—to Barnes & Noble and burying her nose in books. She also asked a ton of questions while interning at various Miami studios and trying to get men to take her seriously. All the while, she continued making music and even appeared as a contestant on American Idol and The X-Factor.

After years of study, Miranda earned her audio engineering certification with Pro Tools and circled back to Cool & Dre, who gave her work as an engineer. Miranda oversaw sessions by the likes of DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, and Rick Ross. “I’m at my core a recording artist,” Miranda says. “I’ve had situations where I’m now in the room with these people with a different level of respect. It’s not like, ‘Oh, please listen to my demo.’ I’m actually running the studio session.”

Once, while recording with Ross, she happened to sing a few bars of a popular song. “He was like, ‘Wait a minute, you sing?’ Miranda recalls. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I make beats, too.’ And he’s like, ‘You sing and you make beats? And you weren’t even gonna say nothing?’” Miranda wound up playing Ross a couple of her tracks, and he liked what he heard. So much so that he jumped on one of the beats and recorded a 12-bar verse.

As she established herself behind the boards, Miranda never came across other female producers or engineers. So in 2012, with help from her sister Christine—an entertainment lawyer who volunteered her time and her credit card—Miranda founded Girls Make Beats. Initially lacking corporate sponsorship, the sisters purchased one laptop, one DJ controller, and one beat machine and began visiting local Miami schools. They hit something like 11 in two weeks and took photos and videos as they went. This documentation came in handy when Miranda attended that year’s NAMM Show, the massive annual music trade conference, and began forging relationships with companies like serato and Pioneer DJ, two of the many manufacturers who’ve become Girls Make Beats partners over the last decade.

“Pretty much every major manufacturer at this point has in some way contributed to the organization,” says Miranda.

Girls Make Beats has official hubs in Miami and Los Angeles, with an Atlanta chapter on the way. The organization also sponsors various activities in New York City, and this spring, all four cities will host courses on producing, engineering, and DJing. More than 500 girls aged 5 to 17 have taken these courses over the years, and thanks to corporate sponsorships and grants from foundations, the majority have received scholarships and paid no tuition.

Factoring in all of the other programs Girls Make Beats offers—such as panels, Masterclass sessions, “DJ for a Day” events, and a new initiative that allows girls to start clubs in their schools—Miranda aims to reach more than 1,000 girls each year. Some will benefit from some amazing opportunities.

Last month, Girls Make Beats participants DJed the halftime show of a Harlem Globetrotters game at the Crypto.com Arena in L.A. They also spent an entire day at Netflix, where they learned about careers in production and played a DJ set on the company’s terrace. When the massively influential Missy Elliott received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2021, Girls Make Beats was there to provide the music. That same year, Girls Make Beats landed a song in the film Coming 2 America. In 2019, Girls Make Beats even created an official remix of Janet Jackson’s “Made for Now,” featuring Daddy Yankee.

Despite these and other wins, Miranda knows it’s going to take a lot to create the structural change that’s needed in the music industry. But Girls Make Beats is taking the crucial first step of exposing young women to production and engineering and creating safe spaces where they can imagine themselves succeeding.

“Studies show that girls lose confidence by age five and believe they can’t do the same thing boys can do,” Miranda says. “Just helping to change that narrative is going to take time. It’s going to take community. We need our male allies to be a part of it as well.”

They’d be wise to get on board, because creating equity in these fields doesn’t only benefit women. Music, like any other type of art, thrives on diversity and fresh ideas. Anyone who loves music and doesn’t want to listen to the same old thing year after year should want lots more women (and other underrepresented groups) making beats and contributing freely to the creative process.

“It really goes beyond just saying, ‘Hey, we want more girls making beats, or ‘We’re going to teach these young girls how to run Pro Tools,’’’ Miranda says. “Yeah, that’s cool. That’s awesome. But at the end of the day, it really is the fact that they are contributing authentically to music and ultimately to culture … Music is just so powerful. It really dictates our culture, and we need more authentic women voices in that, whatever that may be, but coming really and truly from a woman.”

You can support Girls Make Beats by donating or volunteering—which could lead to job opportunities.