A new report has been looking at gender diversity through the lens of what gets onto the radio airwaves in the UK. The report, by Linda Coogan Byrne and Women in […]
Tag: UK
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Covid-19 sparked ‘boom’ in paid subscriptions in UK says ERA
‘How Britain entertained itself during lockdown’ is the title of the latest press release from UK body the Entertainment Retailers Association (Era). Surprisingly, the answer isn’t ‘doomscrolling Twitter in tears and making forts from panic-bought toilet rolls and flour’.
Era is understandably more focused on music, TV and gaming habits, and a “boom in sales of subscriptions”. In its latest tracking study, which began on 25 May, Era asked people which subscription services they had added since the start of lockdown.
Video hogs the chart: 10.5% of respondents had signed up to Disney+, and 8.4% to Netflix. But music makes an appearance too: 5.6% of people had added Amazon Prime (admittedly with free shipping and Prime Video the draws alongside Prime Music) while 4.2% had started subscribing to Spotify, 1.4% to YouTube Music and 1.2% to Amazon Music Unlimited.
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UK music industry set for its third National Album Day
When the going gets tough for the long-form album format, the tough get going on a campaign to persuade people to listen to albums.
Billy Ocean is one of the ambassadors for the third National Album Day in the UK, alongside Blossoms, La Roux, The Psychedelic Furs and Toyah Willcox.
Taking place on 10 October, it’s an event dreamed up by industry bodies the BPI and ERA, with support from broadcaster the BBC and other industry partners.
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BPI distributes £270k of donations to Covid-19 relief in the UK
We haven’t written a ‘positive coronavirus news’ roundup in a little while, but here’s something that would be in it if we did.
British industry body the BPI has distributed a second round of donations from labels and streaming services to charities and organisations in the UK.
£270k was divided between Help Musicians, Nordoff Robbins, the Music Venue Trust and the Music Managers Forum Rebuild Project (nearly £60k each) and Music Support (nearly £30k).
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Campaign aims to support Deaf and disabled people in UK music industry
British organisation Attitude is Everything focuses on accessibility in the live music sector. Now it’s launching a new campaign called ‘Beyond the Music’ which aims to create more opportunities for Deaf and disabled people in the music industry.
The campaign will be “supporting Deaf and disabled people to gain the necessary skills, experience, support and contacts they require to work or volunteer in the music industry, while providing training, resources and guidance to help music businesses build a truly inclusive work environment”.
It kicks off today with a survey aimed at Deaf and disabled people who work in the industry (or want to) – their answers will be used to inform the three-year project.
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New appointments for The Brit Trust and Ivors Academy
British music industry bodies have recently been under scrutiny for the diversity of their management, boards and teams. Making progress on this front is an ongoing process, and today there are new appointments to talk about from charitable organisation The Brit Trust and songwriter body Ivors Academy.
The Brit Trust has appointed Kobalt’s VP of business affairs Mulika Sannie and Point Blank Recordings’ director of A&R Kwame Kwaten as new trustees. The news means that two of the 14 trustees are Black, while four are women.
Meanwhile, The Ivors Academy has appointed the co-chairs of its new Youth Council to its board of directors. Hope Winter and Imogen Williams will take a shared role on the board, as well as overseeing the Youth Council: a group of 16 young songwriters.
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Women in CTRL report analyses diversity of UK trade bodies
Not-for-profit organisation Women in CTRL has published a report this morning analysing the diversity of 12 British music industry bodies, focusing on their teams, board members, CEOs and chairs.
AIM, the BPI, FAC, Ivors Academy, ISM, MMF, MPA, MPG, MVT, PPL, PRS for Music and UK Music are the bodies under scrutiny, and the report says they have work to do.
Across the 12 bodies, there are three women CEOs and one woman chair, although there’s a range when it comes to board members: the MVT has a 50/50 gender split on its board, while MMF’s is 56.2% women for example, while PRS for Music and PPL are only 12.5% and 6.2% respectively.
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Amplify London pilot to fund five grassroots music projects
In February this year we wrote about Amplify London, a new partnership between YouTube Music and UK charity London Music Fund to support grassroots projects for young musicians.
Now the first five projects to benefit have been announced, which will reach up to 200 11-21 year-olds across London in the UK.
The projects include: a music studio for youth club Ambition Aspire Achieve, which works with vulnerable 12-14 year-olds; songwriting programme Voice Against Hate, which promotes respect and tackles hate in schools; six-day summer camp Girls Rock London in 2021 for young women and trans youth to learn instruments and form bands; six-week training programme for young rappers, producers and sound engineers Ruff Sqwad Arts Foundation; and three-week summer songwriting camp Windrush Amplified, for vulnerable 11-16 year-olds.
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Spotify research explores dearth of UK podcast diversity
We reported recently on production company Broccoli Content’s launch of an ‘Equality in Audio’ pact to change the lack of diversity in the podcasting industry.
Spotify was one of the companies signing up – admittedly after a bit of public nudging from Broccoli Content boss Renay Richardson – and now the streaming service has published some research that shows why the pact is needed.
Fewer than 5% of the top 100 podcasts in the UK are hosted by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women or non-binary people, according to Spotify. Meanwhile, it interviewed 1,000 women in the UK who identify as BAME, and found that 74% think that BAME women are underrepresented in podcasting.
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Sony Music UK’s latest signing: toy-shop character Oscar
Sony Music UK launched its children’s label Magic Star last year, and has since been steadily building a roster of music for kids, not to mention an Alexa skill to get them to wash their hands properly.
Its latest signing is a child himself… just not a real one. Oscar is an animated character created by retailer Smyths Toys back in 2016 for its advertising campaigns, including a commercial that saw him remaking Beyoncé’s ‘If I Were a Boy’ as ‘If I Were a Toy’.
Now Oscar has a record deal with Magic Star, and will be releasing his debut album through the label. Magic Star boss Will Speer will be speaking at next week’s ‘New Kids on the Block’ online event from the BPI and ERA, in partnership with Kids Insights and Music Ally, so we may hear more about the plans for Oscar then.
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UK bodies publish new guidance for Covid-safe production
We’ve been talking a lot about when live concerts will come back in countries still locked down due to Covid-19. But what about other aspects of the music industry? Music and music video production, for example, which have their own challenges to solve around social distancing and safety.
In the UK, some new guidance has just been published on how to safely restart production, developed as part of a working group for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
You can read the initial document here – it’ll be revised to stay current as official government advice changes – with its advice on everything from managing risk and who should go to work, to measures for singing and playing wind/brass instruments, sanitation, and safely lugging equipment in and out of studios.
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MelodyVR and Live Nation set for Brixton Academy livestreams
We reported last week on VR music startup MelodyVR’s financial performance in 2019 – £195k of revenues but a net loss of nearly £15m.
The company is continuing to explore new partnerships to grow its business, though, with the latest being a deal with Live Nation in the UK.
The pair will launch a series of live concerts from the O2 Academy Brixton venue in London, with fans able to buy tickets to watch online – in 360 degrees and/or virtual reality via MelodyVR’s app on smartphones and Oculus VR headsets.