| Last year the appalling murder of George Floyd led to 'Black Out Tuesday' and a surge of businesses making commitments and statements on diversity for the year ahead.
We took the opportunity to look at what we were already doing in relation to race and ethnicity, sought expert input and got on with the work and action that could make a positive change.
Now we are taking a moment to audit that work and set out further plans and commitments as we continue our work to combat racism and other forms of prejudice. Our goal is to help drive progress towards a more fair and inclusive industry.
Last week we launched 'EDI Level-Up', a free Equity, Diversity & Inclusion training programme for our community and the thousands of people working within those businesses. This carefully curated programme, delivered over a year by EDI experts, aims to break down barriers for independent music businesses and help them create work environments where 'conscious inclusion' is embedded. Running a small business in music is extremely challenging. Even with the best intentions, it can be difficult for business owners to implement change without access to specialist advice. This training will accelerate positive change in our industry through education and awareness. Members can find out more and sign up here.
This month we will also be launching a groundbreaking free Associate Membership tier which will deliver access to knowledge, networks and platforms to every artist and entrepreneur releasing music through AIM's independent Distributor Members. Associate Membership will level the playing field and provides businesses with the tools to grow. We intend to support over 100,000 independent rightsholders through Associate Membership over the next 12 months.
Following the release by the UK government of the Report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities we issued an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The letter called on the Prime Minister to address the structural problems existing in our society which the commission's report failed to acknowledge. It was signed by nearly 700 artists and professionals from the independent music sector and beyond, including music industry and diversity leaders like Keith Harris OBE, Nadia Khan (AIM Chair and Founder of Women in CTRL), Ammo Talwar MBE (Chair of the UK Music Diversity Taskforce) and Charisse Beaumont (Black Lives in Music) and artists Roots Manuva and Ms Banks.
In a landmark moment, at our 2020 AGM, our members elected a female-majority board for the first time. We also welcomed Nadia Khan of Women in CTRL as our Chair and exceeded our diversity target for the AIM Board which was benchmarked against London's population. We believe this is a music industry first. This is especially noteworthy as it was achieved through member voting rather than being co-opted. We are committed to maintaining these levels of representation within AIM Board.
As a member of UK Music, AIM helped draft, and has committed to deliver on, their Ten-Point Plan. This is a list of actions to help increase diversity and boost inclusion in the UK music industry.
In this first year, we have successfully delivered our initial response to all of the Ten-Point Plan's targets and are planning how to go further in the year ahead under the guidance of EDI experts and music industry leaders. We will build a better industry in line with the UK Music Ten-Point Plan, IMPALA's Diversity and Inclusion Charter, and goals set by The Black Music Coalition and Keychange among others.
Gestures of solidarity are not enough. We are committed to taking targeted and practical actions that will make real and lasting change – not only in music businesses, but in our culture and society at large. To ensure we are making progress, we have committed to publishing a yearly audit of our equity, diversity and inclusion activity – reviewing our work in the year gone by and setting out new goals for more impactful action in the years ahead. The AIM EDI Audit 2021 has now been published and can be viewed here.
To help make a difference to combat racism, we recommend supporting:
Black Music Coalition - an organisation dedicated to establishing equality and equity for Black executives, artists and their communities within the UK Music Industry.
Black Lives In Music - an organisation working to dismantle racism in the music industry.
Black Funding Network - a community of individuals and institutions who come together to support Black founded and led non-profit organisations.
PRS Foundation's Power-Up Initiative – a long-term initiative which will support Black music creators and industry professionals and executives, as well as addressing anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the music sector.
AIM has partnerships with many community organisations working across the nine protected characteristics. You can view a list of them here. | 
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