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UK Music says more needs to be done to improve diversity at senior level in British music industry
UK Music has released new stats breaking down the British music workforce into ethnic groups. It found that representation of black, Asian and other ethnic minorities has been boosted at almost every level, particularly at entry level. However, in senior roles, employees still skew disproportionately white.

The data shows that 12.6% of people surveyed at entry level identified as black, but that fell by nearly half to 6.4% at senior level. People who identify as Asian made up 6.8% at entry level, but 4% at senior level. And people who identified as mixed ethnicity represented 8.1% at entry level, and 5.3% at senior level. Meanwhile, those who identified as white accounted for 65.4% of entry level jobs, and 80.1% of senior level jobs.

"This data is really important as it's the first time that UK Music has broken down different ethnic groups into sub-groups of black, Asian, and mixed race - rather than using that outdated and disrespectful catch-all term 'BAME'", says UK Music Diversity Taskforce Chair Ammo Talwar. "It shows the value of dropping the phrase 'BAME' when talking about different communities because now we have far more clarity about the different ethnic groups who make up the music industry".

"Our UK Music Diversity Taskforce has a clear strategy in our ten-point plan that we hope will lead the way for other organisations and other sectors to adopt", he continues. "We are determined to make the urgent changes needed to properly represent and support the communities and audiences we serve".

UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin adds: "I know just how hard the industry is working when it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion. These are challenges not just for the music business, but right across society. For our business to reflect modern Britain and our audiences, we need to keep striving to ensure diversity runs right through every level and sector of our industry".

Dropping the terms 'BAME' and 'urban' within the music industry was the first point on the UK Music ten-point plan for improving diversity that was mentioned there by Talwar, and which was published last August. See the full plan here.

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Everything Everything sign to Concord
Everything Everything have signed a new deal with Concord Music Publishing covering all of their future music.

"We look forward to working with such an imaginative team, who represent an extensive but carefully curated roster and catalogue", say the band. "We're proud to become part of it".

A&R Director at Concord Music Publishing, Tom Coulson Smith, adds: "It is rare to see a band consistently push boundaries and bend genres as Everything Everything have done throughout their career. To have continued success alongside that is even rarer".

"The band and their records have grown with a generation of music lovers, and they have become firm favourites at summer festivals, on the touring circuit and across radio playlists alike", he continues. "The whole Concord team are so excited to see where they take their music next and it is an honour to be a part of their journey".

The band released their fifth album, 'Re-animator', last year, and are set to tour the UK in 2022.

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TuneCore and Believe confirm partnership with YouTube around Shorts
DIY distributor TuneCore and its parent company Believe announced earlier this week a new partnership with YouTube around its TikTok rivalling Shorts service, which it began rolling out in the US in March following an initial pilot in India.

Like TikTok and Instagram Reels, the aim of Shorts is to make it easier for users to create and share short-form videos, with access to a library of music clips to sync into those videos a key part of the mix. Which means as these services roll out, the platforms need their music industry partners to pump loads of musical clips into their audio libraries. Artists and labels working with TuneCore or Believe will now be able to push clips into the YouTube Shorts platform.

Although services like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are all licensed and therefore revenue generating for the music industry, more attention to date has been put on the way that having a musical clip go viral on one of these platforms causes a spike in listening for featured tracks on more conventional streaming services. That's partly because some of the licensing deals around these video-sharing services are lump-sum advance deals, so payments are not actually linked to plays. And also because the premium subscription services still pay higher royalties.

With YouTube Shorts, of course, videos can be directly linked to any tracks or artists they feature on the YouTube subscription music service and the wider YouTube platform. As TuneCore and Believe explained earlier this week. "When creators use a song clip for their short video, the music is linked to the artist's full length song, music video and bio on YouTube proper", they say. "Viewers are able to go directly to the artist's videos on YouTube as well as to the artist's YouTube channels".

Confirming TuneCore artists could now push clips into the YouTube Shorts library, the distributor's co-head, Andreea Gleeson, says: “TuneCore is THRILLED to partner with YouTube in introducing YouTube Shorts to the platform's robust creator community. Just as TuneCore democratised music distribution, short form videos and social media are levelling the playing field for music discovery, turning everyday fans into tastemakers and giving them the power to make songs into hits".

Meanwhile, Believe's President of Label & Artist Solutions, Romain Becker, adds: “The advantage we are bringing to Believe and TuneCore artists is clear - fans can immediately connect to artists whose music they like without leaving the platform, thus allowing music to be discovered organically".

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Kiss launches blissed out station, hosts Ibiza-themed weekend
Bauer's Kiss radio stations will be broadcasting "the ultimate 24 hour Ibiza experience" this weekend, with the broadcaster declaring earlier this week: "With many of us still unable to travel to the White Isle, Kiss will be bringing the vibes back to homes across the UK".

Special Ibiza-themed shows will air on the main Kiss channel, as well on the Kisstory, Kiss Dance and the all-new Kiss Bliss stations. DJs set to appear over the weekend include Kiss residents Majestic, Joel Corry, Anton Powers, Sam Divine, Gorgon City and Mark Knight, plus guests like Roger Sanchez, Judge Jules and Solardo.

The new online Kiss Bliss service promises a "more chilled experience" with a mix of R&B, Afrobeats and blissed out house. It began as a lockdown feature "to provide musical respite for our audience during a challenging time". But, says Bauer, "Kiss wanted to keep reflecting their audiences' moods and changing energy levels by providing even more choice from the Kiss Network for 2021 and beyond".

Commenting on all the Ibiza themed shows this weekend, the aforementioned Majestic says: "Kiss Ibiza can't happen in real life just yet, but I'm gearing up to blast your speakers for the ultimate Ibiza experience. I'll be playing all the massive Ibiza anthems and chatting to some of my mates who also happen to be Ibiza's most legendary DJs including Judge Jules, Roger Sanchez and Solardo. I can't wait!"

Kiss Content Director Rebecca Frank adds: "We can't get on the party plane just yet, so we're bringing the rave to the radio once again. Off the back of our epic 150 DJs on the network for April's #KISSfest, we're keeping the vibes alive for the Kiss".

All the Ibiza-themed shenanigans takes place from 11am tomorrow through to 11am on Sunday.

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Ladyhawke announces first album for five years
Ladyhawke has released new single 'Mixed Emotions', and announced that she will put out her first album for five years, 'Time Flies', in October.

"'Mixed Emotions' was written with old mates Jono Sloan and Nick Littlemore while I was on a writing trip in LA", she says. "Sloan had come up with a really cool bass groove which Nick and I riffed over to get the lyrics and melody. The song is about all the things you can feel with one person, sometimes all in a single day. Ups and downs, confusion, highs, and lows. And everything in between!"

The new single follows her recent collaboration with Broods, 'Guilty Love', which will also appear on the new album. Both reveal a new vigour for making music, which began in 2019.

“I was feeling pretty grateful to be alive and making music, so I felt like I didn't 'care' anymore - not in a bad way, I just stopped over thinking it", she says. "I've had depression and anxiety for a long time and always been really open about it. I started therapy in November 2019 regularly. I had reached the bottom, I realised I needed help, and I was recommended someone through a friend, who was used to talking to artists and creative people".

"It felt like last year I changed my whole life", she goes on. "I decided to try medication for the first time, and it turned everything around and made me feel like a haven't in a long time. My mum said she hasn't seen me like this since I was seventeen".

As well as Sloan and Littlemore, she also worked with songwriter Tommy English, Josh Fountain, Jeremy Toy and Chris Stracey on the new album.

'Time Flies' is out through BMG on 8 Oct. Watch the video for 'Mixed Emotions' here.

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Max Cooper releases new single, Leaving This Place
Max Cooper has released new single 'Leaving This Place', taken from his upcoming EP 'Maps'. Written during a period of isolation, Cooper threw himself wholeheartedly into the recording of the track, building up dense layers of sound.

"I stuck with the same principles of space and feeling from the EP in general, by mixing the pads, the slowly evolving atmospheric synth parts louder in the mix, and the percussion quieter, save for a kick filtered right down", he says. "So the mix took on an engulfing quality. I also added a lot of layers of binaural elements and small synth jams to further this atmosphere and yield a strange space around you with headphone listening, and I pretty much avoided adding any big drums".

As for the Jazer Giles-directed video that accompanies the single, he goes on: "I was drawn to the work of Jazer Giles which, for me, has a beautiful balance of computational and organic form. It's rich with structure and rules, but also full of a sort of wrongness that signifies art from a human. And it's also deep with sub-systems and details, there's a lot hidden in there as there is with the music, if you're interested to delve into it with headphones and high res".

The title of the EP, 'Maps', relates to its relationship to other artforms, with choreography, dance, film and music all mapped onto each other to create a wider whole.

"A map is the representation of one structure in terms of another", explains Cooper. "Each creative provided their own mapping, not of some literal structure or brief, but of the feelings, movements, textures, the felt form of what was presented, which carried so much intent from the outset and filtered through the whole process".

Cooper is set to play live at Grand Central Hall in Liverpool on 3 Jul. He'll also be playing the Roundhouse in London on 30 Apr 2022.

Watch the video for 'Leaving This Place' here.

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EDUCATION & EVENTS

AIM's Future Independents conference has announced keynote interviews with YouTube and Google's Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen; founder of Women in CTRL and Chair of AIM, Nadia Khan; and founder of Because Music, Emmanuel de Buretel. The event takes place on 3 Jun. Find out more here.

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ARTIST NEWS

Rina Sawayama has been cast to star alongside Keanu Reeves in new movie 'John Wick: Chapter 4'. "I'm so glad to have Rina on board to make her feature film debut in 'John Wick: Chapter 4'", says producer Chad Stahelski. "She's an incredible talent who'll bring so much to the film".

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RELEASES

The album that DMX was preparing to release when he died last month, 'Exodus', is out today. Guests on it include Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Bono, Snoop Dogg, Usher, Nas, Lil Wayne and Alicia Keys.

J Balvin has released new single '¿Qué Más Pues', featuring María Becerra.

Will Young has released a cover of Claire Maguire's 'Elizabeth Taylor', from his new covers album 'Crying On The Bathroom Floor', which is out on 6 Aug. "As soon as I read the first lyric 'I feel like Elizabeth Taylor' I was in", he says. "It's such a beautiful song and it's such a brilliant sentiment. As a man to say that too just makes it even more interesting and sad in a way".

Machine Gun Kelly has released the video for recent single 'Love Race', featuring Kellin Quinn.

Griff has released new single 'One Foot In Front Of The Other'. Her debut mixtape of the same name is out on 18 Jun. "I've produced the majority of this mixtape", she says. "I heard a stat that 2% of music producers are women, and so it feels important that as a young female in the music industry I should empower myself and continue to properly do it. It was challenging, but I hope in doing so 'One Foot In Front of The Other' feels like a raw, emotional and unpolished body of work".

Sam Feldt and Sam Fischer have teamed up for new track 'Pick Me Up'. "I've loved Sam Fischer's voice from the first track I discovered from him, and always dreamt about doing something together", says Feldt. "Remixing his latest single together with Demi Lovato opened the doors for a single together. I'm really excited to share the end result, because let's be honest: two Sams are better than one".

MØ is back with her first new music since 2018, a single called 'Live To Survive'. The song, she says, "is about pulling yourself back up after the crash of a toxic relationship to someone or something. It's a reminder that life is a constant dance of ups and downs, and that the downs are OK. We're here for it, ready to survive another heartache and rebuild ourselves again and again".

Tommy Genesis has released her first single for two years 'Peppermint'.

Louis Dunford has released new single 'Ballad Of Benjamin', written in memory of his friend Ben Kinsella, who was stabbed to death aged sixteen in 2008. Dunford will also run a sponsored 10k in aid of the Ben Kinsella Trust. "I wrote this song a few years ago as a tribute to my friend, Ben", he says. "My good friend Charlotte [Regan] made this video for the song and we hope to shine a light on Ben's story, the trust his family have set up in his name, and the ongoing knife crime issues we still face in this country over ten years on from Ben's murder".

Girl Ray have released new single 'Give Me Your Love'. "We worked on this song with Al Doyle and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip in their studio off Brick Lane in London", says the band's Poppy Hankin. "We had one day left with them, so thought we'd unearth an old demo of a slightly house-leaning song I'd been working on a few months before. It had a really loose structure, but the feel of the chords was good, so we decided to try fleshing it out. With all the awfulness of 2020 in our heads - it was important to us that it sounded optimistic and hopeful; a song for future summers where people can dance and enjoy music together once again".

Larry The Pink Human have released new single 'No Wrong No Right'. "It's the summer of 2021", they say. "You're sixteen again, lockdown is almost a distant memory, the taste of freedom is in the air. So close you can almost touch it. Wireless AirPods in, you are on a journey. A walk to town, a trip to your nearest city on a train, plans to meet all your friends. £20 in your pocket - probably on a Monzo, actually. 'No Wrong No Right' is this very moment. Uncertainty, excitement, beautiful pure naivety, the human experience".

Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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Glass Animals sell peanut butter in aid of Music Venue Trust
Glass Animals have been announced as patrons of the Music Venue Trust. Their first act in the role? Selling peanut butter. Obviously.

Back in 2014, the band released a song called 'Gooey', which features the line, "You just wanna know those peanut butter vibes". Also, peanut butter brand Jackpot has been supporting the MVT since 2017. So, you see, it makes perfect sense for Glass Animals to be collaborating on a limited edition refillable jar design that will support the charity's work to save independent music venues.

"I've been eating Jackpot peanut butter for years", says Glass Animals' Dave Bayley. "There's a Jackpot stall in a market next to my house in Hackney, and I loved the look of the packaging to be honest - plus it had a quote from 'Gremlins' on. So, I picked up a tub. It was delicious".

"That's when I started reading the small print on the back", he goes on. "Each sale includes a donation to Music Venue Trust, the charity which looks after grassroots music venues - ie the venues that gave us a shot in the early days when we had no idea what we were doing, the venues that need help to survive but do an extraordinary amount for music culture".

"Then I read further and saw that the tub can be brought back and refilled", he adds. "It wasn't another single-use piece of plastic that was going to go sit in a landfill. So, I refilled. And refilled. And eventually, cut to three years, many refills, and 1293 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches later, we turned up at our rehearsal space, and there sat four tubs of Jackpot peanut butter with our names printed on and a small note saying to get in touch. We got in touch. And this is the result. Glass Animals x Jackpot Peanut Butter".

Jackpot MD Rupert Leigh adds: "It is more important than ever that grassroots music venues and the culture of music is nurtured and supported. Without these venues, the next generation of musicians and artists can't grow and emerge and become the next Glass Animals. At Jackpot, everything we do is rooted in our purpose to give back and provide real value, and I am really excited to see how this collaboration can shine a light on how we need to look after and invest in our music culture neighbourhood by neighbourhood".

Meanwhile, MVT Strategic Director Beverley Whitrick says: "MVT's work is always amplified through partnerships with others, whether that is innovative companies such as Jackpot - who have been so supportive for the past five years - or amazing bands like Glass Animals".

"Artists who express their appreciation for grassroots music venues help their fans understand their importance, and we are delighted to welcome Glass Animals as patrons of the charity. We are excited to be part of this project that joins together music, climate consciousness, good food, great design, and a celebration of our wonderful venues".

Jackpot will donate £2 from every sale of a Glass Animals pot of peanut butter to MVT. And every time you run out of peanut butter, you can send it back to be refilled. Maybe you don't want peanut butter at all though. That's alright. You can also buy a sweatshirt, which, instead of being filled with peanut butter, has a recipe for pancakes printed on the back.

Buy your peanut butter here and your sweatshirt here.

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