Black music industry executives are calling for sweeping changes across the industry.
The Black Music Coalition, a newly formed group of Black music industry executives from the UK, have shared an open letter outlining their call for structural changes to tackle racism in the music industry. Addressed to “Chairmen, CEOs, Presidents and Music Industry Leaders”, the letter follows from last week’s Black Out Tuesday, which saw record labels and music companies suspend normal business for a day in solidarity with anti-racist protesters across the US and Europe.
The open letter, shared yesterday, highlights that “The music industry has long profited from the rich and varied culture of Black people for many generations but overall, we feel it has failed to acknowledge the structural and systematic racism affecting the very same Black community and so effectively, enjoying the rhythm and ignoring the blues.”
To begin rectifying this, the letter calls for five immediate changes across the industry: mandatory anti-racism or unconscious bias training for all non-Black members of staff, that each company commits a part of its annual budget to support “Black organisations, educational projects and charities across the UK”, that career development is put in place for Black staff and that the industry addresses the lack of Black staff in senior management positions and the lack of any Black female President or Chairwomen, that the term ‘urban music’ is replaced with the term ‘Black Music’ across the industry and finally, the establishment of dedicated internal task forces to review and drive equality and diversity aims and the advancement of Black executives within each company.
The letter has been signed by Black executives from many major music companies, including Warner, Universal and Metropolis Music.
Read the open letter in full on IQ Magazine.
