Blog

Dear MMF Members, Associates and the Wider Music Community,

On Tuesday June 2nd the MMF team observed the Music Industry Blackout #theshowmustbepaused in solidarity with our black colleagues and friends.  We spent the day thinking about what we do as an organisation, acknowledging the fundamental role of Black Music genres in the success of our industry and how we can better support black managers and promote change.

The MMF was set up as a forum for managers to share experiences and be stronger acting together.  Building on this legacy, following a suggestion from Paul Craig and Kwame Kwaten and the moving letter to the industry from Keith Harris, we would like to announce that we will be setting up « MMF Unite » a continuing conversation series with our members and friends.

We intend for MMF Unite to be an educational and motivating environment for our music managers and the music industry to create positive conversation around racial and other injustices and how we can collectively address them and influence change, aided by input from important guest speakers we all need to hear from.

Other ideas the team have raised that we will be pursuing include

• Targeting our 3 month free trial for membership to widen the membership base with the Black and Ethnic managers.

• Reviewing our pool of MMF speakers who we propose to conferences and universities to ensure there is a diverse base of managers within this pool.

• Looking at how we better engage black managers with our decision-making structures, such as Policy and Ops, the Board and Custodians

• Encouraging discussion with our associate partners on how they are actively supporting black people, music and creators

• Inviting the UK Music Diversity task force to present at our AGM on 17th June to share their work plan and how we can better support/input.

• Reviewing our education offer and how we actively describe and promote our training to all sections of our membership adapting to different learning preferences.

• Continue to develop our Accelerator programme and its role in increasing diversity by investing in future leaders and engaging alumni in our wider work.

• We will look at expanding our mentorship programme to offer further personal and professional development pathways for black managers and those from other minority groups.

• We will offer ‘unconscious bias’ training to all our members and actively promote attendance.

We will continue to work towards understanding what we can do as an organisation and industry. We would like to hear from our members what their thoughts are, please let us know by going through this form. We have also put together a resources page with some recommended reading and resources that can be used as a starting point for getting educated.