If Black Culture Drives Pop Culture, Where Are the Black Senior Music Executives? (Guest Column)

variety.com:

Tiffany Red Tiffany Red is a Grammy-winning songwriter and songwriter advocate who has written hits for Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Jason Derulo and Zendaya, among others.

She is founder and executive director of the 100 Percenters, a 501 c3 organization with the stated goal of advocating “for all music creatives with a focus on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and marginalized creatives.” She has spoken at length about the challenges faced by songwriters; this is her second Juneteenth essay for Variety.I think we can all agree that black culture drives pop culture.

So why aren’t there more black senior-level executives leading the charge?The most recent Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report states, “Looking at the nine major music companies (Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, 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.” Yeah, let that sink in.

The reality is Black artists’ needs are different than our non-Black counterparts, but how can they fully be met without Black senior-level executives?