BMAC MIA Report Card 2021 FINAL

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. FORWARD 3 II. INTRO – TAKING ACCOUNT 4 III. 2020 in BLACK MUSIC 7 IV. THE INDUSTRY IN ACTION 8 § Grades at a Glance 9 § Music Groups 14 § Publishing 21 § The Recording Academy 23 § DSPs 25 § Touring and Live Music 28 § Black music is Country Music, Too 31 § Can We Learn From Europe? The UK Diversity in Music Report 33 V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 34 VI. APPENDIX 35 2 FORWARD On Behalf of the BMAC Board of Directors One year ago today, moved by the murder of George Floyd, in addition to the call by Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas for an industry pause, we formed the Black Music Action Coalition to advocate with one unified voice for racial equity and justice within the music industry and broader American Society. We promised, on behalf of our artists, as well as the millions of music fans whom we ultimately serve, to engage in self examination, to hold ourselves, and our industry accountable, to advocate for needed and necessary change. Our inaugural annual report card, which assesses the music industry’s progress on matters of racial equity and justice is therefore a fundamental founding principle of the Black Music Action Coalition, and the result of the core commitment we made at our founding. We love music. We love our artists. And we love the millions of fans who are inspired by, and consume the music and culture our artists create. We know our industry can and must be better than it has been. We hope our report will be seen as a beginning, as an encouragement to the many companies and individuals who go to work every day making the music that defines our culture and services our humanity to continue digging deeper, to be intentional in pursuing true equity in a substantive and genuinely transformative manner. To those companies who have made the greatest strides over the past year (and beyond), thank you and please keep going. To all of our companies, we have work to do, and we look forward to continuing to do this work with you until we have achieved the objective of a just, fair and equitable business. What a glorious moment that will be! Binta N. Brown, Co-President BMAC As the noise of last year’s protests, social justice engagement and initial vocal support for #BlackLivesMatter and #TheShowMustBePaused begins to quiet down, we’re now looking at who is actually doing the work, who was committed to the movement beyond the moment? I applaud the important and transformative work of the task forces and groups that have been established at the labels and publishing companies. They are some of the most brilliant minds in our industry, putting in tremendous time working on solutions that will lead to real change. But BMAC’s job is to make sure their suggestions for change don’t fall on deaf ears. We want to see the commitment to equity go beyond giving a small piece of the massive revenue generated by the culture, back to the community. We also want to see it reflected in empowering the Black Executives and Creatives to share in ownership and profit. The Music Industry has huge cultural currency, and it is our intention to use it to transform our society into a more just and inclusive one. Wilie ”Prophet” Stiggers, Co-President BMAC 3 TAKING ACCOUNT For decades, there has been a cycle for Black artists, executives and stakeholders in the music industry. First, there’s the fight for our value and viability to be acknowledged. Next, there’s the fight for our voice to be heard in decision making. Lastly, there’s the fight to retain a fair share of the value and/or returns on our creative input. Rinse, repeat. In the wake of George Floyd’s extra-judicious murder at the hands of police in 2020, calls for honest conversations and confrontations about systematic racism went out for everything from politics and policy to consumer brand packaging. The country was due for a top-down overhaul. Music executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas called for the music industry to take June 2, 2020 as a day of reflection and discussion about how the music business impacts Black lives – the lives of their artists, their executives, and the communities they come from. Music companies readily chimed in with shows of support and solidarity. Unfortunately, however, history suggested any change would be either superficial or short lived. CYCLES OF PROGRESS AND REGRESSION The music business has been confronted about practices which marginalize Black artists and executives before, and those confrontations usually lead to some organizational or financial changes, but those changes don’t last. • In 1972, Columbia Music Group commissioned a study from Harvard Business School that laid out a blueprint for the major label to get into the growing Black music business, including acquiring indie Black labels as a talent and executive pipeline. The other majors followed suit, establishing Black music divisions and joint ventures. Six years later, Philadelphia International’s Kenny Gamble co-founded the Black Music Association because Black retailers, radio programmers, promoters and music executives were being edged out of participation in and decision making about the business of Black music. • In 1988, R&B singer Ruth Brown finally won a years-long battle against Atlantic Records over faulty royalty accounting and charge-backs, receiving her first royalty check from the label since 1960. In addition to rectifying her accounts, Atlantic committed $2M to launch the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, an organization that would provide grants and assistance to legacy artists in need. However, since its inception, the organization shifted its mission statement to ”preserving the genre’s historical and cultural importance as well as providing a helping hand to those in need,” and has become more of an awards program, offering “honorariums” to celebrants. At the foundation’s 20th Anniversary gala in 2008, it distributed a total of $130,000 to 8 recipients – less than 20K per person. • In 1987, the NAACP released The Discordant Sound of Music, a study on racial discrimination in the music industry. The study sought to answer four questions: 1. Are Black people receiving a fair share of the economic opportunities generated by the industry? 2. Is there racial discrimination in the industry, and if so, to what degree is it present? 3. Are Black people equitably employed in behind-the-scene jobs? 4. Do Black artists use their influence to promote and provide opportunities for other Black people? The findings were a stark indictment against the business, charging lack of regulations and oversight with the fact that the majors of the time, including Capitol/EMI, CBS, MCA, Polygram, RCA and Warner Brothers, accounted for 86% of the $4.4 billion in record and prerecorded tape sales in 1985, but had no programs or pipelines for Black executives. "I think what's really lacking is systems of accountability, and the question is, how do you actually have accountability when you have such deep asymmetries of power between the recording companies and the artists, and also deep asymmetries of information, between the recording companies and the artists signing the contract?” - Olufunmilayo Arewa 4 TAKING ACCOUNT Public pressure from the NAACP report led to the installation of the first Black label heads and senior executives over the following years. On June 15, 2021 – more than 30 years after The Discordant Sound of Music - The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released the first study of the kind since, which found that out of 70 major and independent music companies, just 4.2% of top executives were Black. Instead of moving forward over the last 30 years, the business regressed. HOLDING THE BUSINESS ACCOUNTABLE The Black Music Action Coalition, a body of more than 200 Black artists, managers, attorneys and allies, formed in June 2020 to ensure that promises for change weren’t just conversations for a month or a Summer, but that sustainable action followed. After a year of engagement in COVID 19 relief efforts and voter education, BMAC is now taking a first-of-its kind audit of the words and actions of the music business. The BMAC’s inaugural Music Industry Action Report Card is a measure of accountability for public pledges and promises made in response to the music industry-wide observation of #TheShowMustBePaused. The call to action issued to the industry is, and has been, for Black people - executives, artists, vendors and stakeholders - to have voice, visibility, participation and ownership on par with the revenue driven by Black music and culture. The biggest barrier to making this happen has been the music industry’s long-standing practice of opacity, which hinders public responsibility and accountability. Case in point, in preparing this report, the BMAC sent a brief survey to more than 60 executives at over 20 companies. Five replies came back, three from the same corporate system. There was an additional reply that asked to stay anonymous and off-record. Companies did a fair job of visibly amplifying Black voices and causes and putting money back into Black communities and Black organizations over the last year. However, the point is to now hold companies to the task of sustained investment and change. Corporations in general, and entertainment specifically, have been overdue for a standard, public measurement of how their practices impact the Black lives, including executives, artists and the communities they come from. BMAC’s goal is to expand this report annually, until it represents a 360 degree view of the industry and is acknowledged and respected as a standard and official tool of accountability.

Load more