Is the Music Business Slipping on Its Pledge to Diversity?
Late afternoon on May 15, Cameo Carlson, CEO of the management services company mtheory, took the stage at the Music Biz conference in Nashville to address a room that appeared less than half full. “This is inarguably the most important conversation that will happen at Music Biz,” she said. “And it’s unfortunate that not every registrant of this conference is here as they should be.”
The subject of the panel was the latest Music Industry Report Card from the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), a non-profit organization founded in 2020 to combat systemic racism in the music business. Inside the JW Marriott in Nashville, Naima Cochrane, who authored the latest report, talked attendees through its findings. BMAC had printed enough copies of the 41-page document to place one on each seat in the large event room; as the panel wrapped, event staffers went from chair to chair, filling their arms with orphaned reports.
READ MORE in Billboard
