We are proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for the first-ever Digital Culture Awards, in the Data Driven category. This was because of our work using data to understand barriers to, and create opportunities for, new music.
Our Black History Month and International Women’s Day data drop are prime examples of how we record data and use it to empower new music. For the past four years, we have published data about Black and Brown artists we are reaching as part of Black History Month. This year we took this data drop to another level by including data relating to gender, geography, age, educational background and more.
We are still one of very few organisations that publish our data annually. It means that we can be held accountable and people can see what we are doing to bring change.
This February of this year, we also delivered the COVID-19 Impact Survey, in collaboration with Musicians’ Union and Ivors’ Academy. This recorded how composers have been affected by the pandemic, allowing us to adapt according to the findings.
For example, the Covid-19 Impact Survey showed us that the impact of the pandemic on composers was being felt more greatly outside of London. Therefore, we ring-fenced all funding for round 3 of our COVID-19 Composer Awards for composers outside of the capital.
We also made Minute of Listening temporarily free at the start of the pandemic, due to schools closing and education moving online. We saw a mind-blowing 344% increase in sign-ups. This figure made us decide to make the resource free permanently and adapt our income strategy.
We attempt to methodically dismantle many barriers to opportunity through our Fair Access Principles. As you can see data is a key resource in fighting this battle to removing barriers. We have encouraged and supported our Fair Access Principles partners network to be transparent, as we truly believe that good data collection and data transparency are key to addressing barriers within our sector.
We are the national organisation for new music, our mission is to maximise opportunities for people to create new music. This has always been our focus and will continue to be.
Congratulations to Birmingham Open Media and Insights Alliance for also being shortlisted. The winner will be announced in January 2022.
Read our data driven projects that helped us get shortlisted:
Black History Month 2021
International Women’s Day 2021
COVID-19 Impact Survey