Business News Industry People Top Stories

UK Music says more needs to be done to improve diversity at senior level in British music industry

By | Published on Tuesday 1 June 2021

UK Music

UK Music has released new stats breaking down the British music workforce into ethnic groups. It found that representation of black, Asian and other ethnic minorities has been boosted at almost every level, particularly at entry level. However, in senior roles, employees still skew disproportionately white.

The data shows that 12.6% of people surveyed at entry level identified as black, but that fell by nearly half to 6.4% at senior level. People who identify as Asian made up 6.8% at entry level, but 4% at senior level. And people who identified as mixed ethnicity represented 8.1% at entry level, and 5.3% at senior level. Meanwhile, those who identified as white accounted for 65.4% of entry level jobs, and 80.1% of senior level jobs.

“This data is really important as it’s the first time that UK Music has broken down different ethnic groups into sub-groups of black, Asian, and mixed race – rather than using that outdated and disrespectful catch-all term ‘BAME'”, says UK Music Diversity Taskforce Chair Ammo Talwar. “It shows the value of dropping the phrase ‘BAME’ when talking about different communities because now we have far more clarity about the different ethnic groups who make up the music industry”.

“Our UK Music Diversity Taskforce has a clear strategy in our ten-point plan that we hope will lead the way for other organisations and other sectors to adopt”, he continues. “We are determined to make the urgent changes needed to properly represent and support the communities and audiences we serve”.

UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin adds: “I know just how hard the industry is working when it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion. These are challenges not just for the music business, but right across society. For our business to reflect modern Britain and our audiences, we need to keep striving to ensure diversity runs right through every level and sector of our industry”.

Dropping the terms ‘BAME’ and ‘urban’ within the music industry was the first point on the UK Music ten-point plan for improving diversity that was mentioned there by Talwar, and which was published last August. See the full plan here.



READ MORE ABOUT: