In Practice
Diversifying the Board at AIM
AIM, the Association of Independent Music, had a problem – its board, much more so than its membership, was overwhelmingly ‘white, middle class and male’ said founding CEO and Chair Alison Wenham. The organisation held an open meeting to encourage women and BME candidates to put themselves forward and established the Women in Music and Entertainment network, which hosts regular events that give women opportunities to network, collaborate and hear senior women in the industry speak. Alison says: ‘The result has been a far more engaged board with a wealth of divergent and complementary skills that shape AIM's agenda’.
More information about joining AIM.
Encouraging Women to Compose
PRS for Music Foundation made a call-to-arms earlier this year when it launched its ‘Women Make Music’ grants programme. The initiative was established in response to a glaring gender gap between male and female music creators, with women making up only 14% of PRS for Music members and just five women being awarded the Mercury Music Prize in its 18-year history. The fund is available to support organisations that wish to commission work by female music creators, and to women writers creating new music.
Chair of Trustees, Sally Taylor says: ‘We have created this call because we want to raise awareness about the funding we offer to music creators and encourage more women to come forward for this support. By promoting role models for future generations, we hope that wewill be encouraging more women to think about making a living as a music creator.”
More Information about the WOMEN MAKE MUSIC programme.
Live Nation open entry routes for non-graduates
Live Nation Entertainment COO International, Paul Latham, took a strategic decision to open up access to careers in the company. Now all Live Nation venues offer apprenticeships, they run a twin track recruitment into their management programme, so that as well as graduates, they also develop their own managers from the age of 16. He says: “Although we are of course commercially minded, I want to employ people and give them a chance…we were cutting ourselves off from the latent potential of those who have talent but for whatever reason haven’t got the relevant paper qualifications”. He has also ended the use of unpaid interns in the company: “It doesn’t develop your current workforce. Cheap labour does not fit into my mantra in any shape or form".
More information about working for Live Nation Entertainment
Attracting New Audiences
BASCA partnered with Diaspora to develop their SongFest event. They wanted to ensure that songwriters from all ethnicities and backgrounds had the opportunity to hone their craft. A number of outreach meetings were held with young songwriters from a variety of backgrounds who did not know about BASCA and SongFest. The event was sold out, and the majority of ethnic minority attendees, most of them first-time attendees to a BASCA event, were attracted as a result of the outreach work carried out by BASCA and Diaspora.
More information about Songfest, the event for Songwriters
Sourcing New Partners and Suppliers
2Point9, a small independent record label and artist management company, has made its name by developing young musical talent from under-represented groups. This ethos is also reflected in the way Directors Billy Grant and Rob Stuart source freelance staff.
Billy says: ‘We’re passionate about promoting equality and diversity and we try to think outside the box when it comes to finding freelancers to work on our projects. We make it our business to attend networking events such as AIM’s Women in Music and Urban Music International, and through events like this we have found a range of diverse talent we wouldn’t otherwise have known about, including our promotions exec, book-keeper and several video directors we now use regularly.’
Supporting All Musicians
The Musicians Union has a named Equalities Official, and co-ordinates an Equalities Committee of elected female, LGBT, disabled and minority ethnic musicians. This enables them to support under-represented members to become more active within the Union, to identify equalities issues which affect musicians, and to support relevant campaigns. These include promoting Arthritis Care (a disability which affects many musicians), backing the anti-racism organisation Love Music, Hate Racism and campaigning to keep the streets safe for musicians at night.
More about the MU's equalties work
Leadership on Diversity at PRS for Music
Ellis Rich OBE became known for his leadership on equality and diversity during his tenure as Chairman of PRS for Music. He formed a CSR group that included management from different departments and outside stakeholders (Kanya King, CEO, MOBO; Bevan Powell, Black Police Association; Natalie Wade, (Small Green Shoots), Wanda Goldwag (PRS Non-exec director), and Paulette Long of Westbury Music Publishing). The group carried out a survey of the diversity of the staff at the association, and introduced a number of initiatives to recognise the diversity of their employees. They also addressed the diversity of the membership of the society.
Ellis also brought his lifelong admiration for soul music to good use when making nominations for the Ivor Novello awards, supporting songwriting awards given to Gamble and Huff, Quincy Jones and Smokey Robinson. He championed the interaction with and support for the MOBO awards. He also proposed the nomination of publisher Paulette Long to the PRS board, which saw her become the first black female board member of PRS (Paulette was subsquently elected Deputy Chair of PRS for Music in 2011).
Interview with Ellis Rich in M Magazine.
Investment in Disability Access with 'Attitude is Everything' pays dividends at KOKO
KOKO signed to the Charter of Best Practice created by Attitude is Everything (the organisation that improves disabled people’s access to live music) in April 2008. During a Policy training session, the management team at KOKO created a strong, ‘live’ Action Plan, already resulting in the achievement of the Bronze Level within a year of signing up. They invested in Disability Equality Training, implemented new access policies and made some physical changes to the venue. They are now working towards the Silver Level of the Charter, with some elements already fulfilled and more changes planned.
All frontline staff have received Introductory Disability Equality Training, and are now booked in for the Advanced level. Under KOKOs new policy, when disabled customers arrive, they are offered a welcome pack which details the access at the venue. An excellent accessible viewing area has been created, and, as access to the bar is not yet possible, a bartender service has been introduced.
Since signing the Charter, they have developed a regular Deaf and disabled audience, and after creating backstage access, they are now able to provide a far more comfortable and equal experience for Deaf and disabled artists.
A KOKO customer says:
KOKO was superb on Wednesday and I had a really great night. Amadou and Mariam were really brilliant and I thought the venue was by far one of the best I have been to. It was evident that they have worked closely with Attitude is Everything and this made a massive difference to the positive experience that myself and the people I went with had.
Mike Hamer, Operations Manager, KOKO says:
The assistance in signing up to the Charter of Best Practice and training we have received from Attitude is Everything has been of enormous value - increasing staff knowledge and awareness, as well as helping us to develop workable policies of access at KOKO. We have had fantastic feedback and are very proud of the progress we have made. A rolling training programme is now in place to ensure standards remain high.
More about Access for Disabled Customers at KOKO
More about Attitude is Everything and their service.
Developing BME Creative and Business Talent
PUNCH, a record label and music development agency in the West Midlands, provides a range of services and initiatives aimed at developing creative and business talent from black and minority ethnic communities. Its ‘Tuned On’ seminars support BME entrepreneurs, and the organisation has also been instrumental in planning and shaping a new CPD programme for Black Music, ‘Move on Up’, aimed at emerging artists.
Through internships, Punch offers young people the chance to take on projects in its communications and community outreach departments, and developing their interns is something Punch ‘s Director Ammo Talwar MBE takes seriously: ‘We want to create pathways for young BME adults to engage as leaders.’
More about Punch's Music Events and Develoment work.