Music industry leadership
An Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on the diversity of the U.S. music business across examined the rank and titles of 4,060 executives across 119 companies in the music space.
Those organizations spanned 6 categories of the music business: 1) music groups, 2) labels/label groups, 3) publishing, 4) radio, 5) streaming and 6) live music and concert promotion.
Of the 70 major and independent companies , 86.1% of top executives (e.g., CEO/Chair/President) were men, and 86.1% were White. All 10 BIPOC top executives ran independent companies. 2 were women of color. 3 top executives were Black.
Looking at the 9 major music companies (SME, UMG, WMG, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Cumulus, Audacy, Live Nation, AEG Presents) across categories (music groups, streaming, radio, live music and concert promotion), 100% of the top executives were white. 1 was female.
Of 4,060 executives at the VP level and above across 119 companies, 7.5% were Black. There were 17.7 white male executives to every 1 Black female executive.
