Report: ‘Musicians’ Census’ reveals racism
- Title: ‘Musicians’ Census – Musicians from the Global Majority Insight Report’
- Author: Help Musicians, Black Lives in Music, UK Musicians’ Union
- Published in: November 2023
- Keywords: Anti-racism, global majority, BIPoC
Authored by Help Musicians, Black Lives in Music and the UK Musicians’ Union, the ‘Musicians’ Census – Musicians from the Global Majority Insight Report’ compiled data collected from 624 UK-based musicians who identified as belonging to the global majority (basically meaning all non-white people).
Help Musicians is an independent UK charity for professional musicians, which offers support in times of career crisis or opportunity, while the UK Musicians’ Union is a community of more than 34,000 members, who stand together for their rights and campaign for a fairer music industry. For this report, they partnered up with Black Lives in Music (BLiM), which provides mentorship, employment opportunities and supports music organizations in becoming more diverse.
Dedicated to provide an insight into the work reality of all earning and aspiring to earn musicians, census data was collected via a 15-minute online survey, which was open from January to March 2023. The Census overall garnered 5,867 responses, of which this Global Majority sample forms approximately 11%. Although the survey was UK only, it still offers an interesting snapshot of the ethnicity pay gap (almost £1,000 between white respondents and those identifying as global majority), regularly occurring experiences of racism and a lack of reporting of such incidents.
For all music entities, including festivals, these findings are extremely important to get an understanding of how discriminatory practices are still affecting the lives of BIPoC artists and to raise awareness of these issues. As the authors of the census put it: “Ultimately, we hope to see the Census helping to foster a thriving and diverse musician population, now and in the future.”