Christopher BarrettThe past two years have seen increased representation of ethnic minorities and women within the music industry workforce, according to UK Music’s 2020 Workforce Diversity Survey.
Representation of ethnic minorities among those aged 16-24 in the music industry stands at record 30.6%, up from 25.9% in 2018, according to the report.
The report, published every two years, also found there had been an increase in the proportion of women in the workforce; from 45.3% in 2016 to new high of 49.6% in 2020.
The survey collates data from across the music business including the live music sector. It found that the number of people from ethnic minority communities at entry-level positions had risen from 23.2% in 2018 to new high of 34.6% this year.
There was also an increase in the number of workers from ethnic minorities at senior executive levels – up from 17.9% in 2018 to 19.9% in 2020.
The survey is overseen by UK Music’s Diversity Taskforce, led by its chair Ammo Talwar MBE, which also issued a ten-point plan that it says aims to put the music business “front and centre” of the drive to tackle racism and boost diversity in Britain.
The ten-point plan is outlined below:
• Urban classification to be replaced in all reports and communications – either by genre such as Soul or Rap; UK Music members will commit to support those who wish to use the term “black music”. Members to stop using the acronym BAME – use Black, Asian or ethnic minority background rather than acronym.
• UK Music members to compile a database of persons accountable and responsible for diversity across organisation.
• UK Music members to commit and spend an allocated amount of their annual recruitment budget to ensure a diverse candidate pool.
• UK Music members to allocate a certain amount of their annual training budget on a 12-month diversity Continuing Professional Development training programme to ensure fair career opportunities for all.
• UK Music members to allocate budget and implement a programme to increase diverse representation in middle and senior management.
• UK Music members to help UK Music implement better transparency around gender and ethnic pay gap – move towards lower reporting rate of 50+ employees.
• Each UK Music member to identify a socially engaged organisation whose work relates to gender or race whom they can invest in on a long term basis.
• Each UK Music member to develop diversity policies and internally set diversity targets for core staff. Targets to be published and reported to UK Music and updated annually in order to assess progress. Member bodies to promote diversity and inclusion to partners and stakeholders ensuring industry standards are met.
• UK Music members to amplify their work with UK Music Diversity Taskforce to increase the response rate and ultimately the data collected in the biennial UK Music Workforce Diversity Survey with both their own employees and membership. Aim to have 80% of core staff respond to next survey.
• Each UK Music members to work towards increasing diversity on its executive bodies and boards – 30% diverse (race) and 50% (gender). Progress towards these goals is to be reported to UK Music as part of annual progress audit.
Talwar said: “This plan is data driven, evidence based with metrics and lived experience. It’s the accumulation of nine months’ work across the whole music industry to support yet hold the industry to account.
“No tokenistic statements, no short-term wins but a truly collaborative long-term plan that reboots the sector and ensures diversity is front and centre of all major decisions.”
UK Music CEO Jamie Njoku-Goodwin (pictured) said: “If our music industry is to tell the story of modern-day Britain, then it needs to look like modern-day Britain too. This ground-breaking report is an important step towards achieving that.”