PRS for Music announced the latest appointees to its Members’ Council yesterday, with CEO Andrea Czapary Martin hailing their “breadth of vision, diversity of skill sets and an understanding of the digital eco-system”.
However, the UK music industry’s latest internal row is already brewing over diversity beyond skill sets, with seven of the eight appointees being men, and all eight being white.
Management body the MMF quickly put out a statement. “Today’s PRS election result is disappointing. Last week at the Ivors we all celebrated the diversity of the UK’s songwriting talent, and it’s evident that those voices need to be properly represented on the Council of our collecting society,” said chair Paul Craig, vice chair Kwame Kwaten and CEO Annabella Coldrick, while stressing that their issue is with PRS for Music’s system of governance: “That this hasn’t happened is no reflection on the candidates…”
The MMF bosses are also unhappy with news that the society’s charitable arm, PRS Foundation, is going to see a cut in funding from 2024. “We’d urge PRS to rethink this decision, and to consider redistributing unallocated ‘black box’ royalties in order to support emerging and grassroots talent.”
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