Charlotte Edgeworth is director of diversity, inclusion and social impact at Sony Music Entertainment UK. She studied politics at the University of Edinburgh, starting out working in marketing and then moving into the charity space, before going on to combine her communications and social impact skills by running corporate grant making foundations. Charlotte began working with Sony Music UK in 2020 in an advisory capacity before taking on her current role in May 2021.
“Ideally, I would love that the stories and contributions of Black Britons were known and celebrated within our other significant events throughout the year. Until we are at that point, I do think there is a need to focus for the month on oft neglected figures in our shared history, not just for Black Britons but ALL Britons.”
A skillset combining communications and social impact
For many years I have worked in the corporate social responsibility space. Like many in this area, this was a culmination of work across both corporate and charity sectors and in different functions, predominantly with a communications focus.
I started my career in marketing (by accident, as I was originally planning to be an accountant!) and after moving to the charity sector for a while, I found that I could combine my communications and social impact skills by running corporate grant-making foundations. After many years in this space, I became a corporate responsibility consultant, advising companies in a variety of sectors on their responsible business practices.
Championing social justice
I am now the director of diversity, inclusion and social impact at Sony Music UK and I have been in role for about 18 months. Day-to-day, I work with our global corporate philanthropy and social impact team to look after the management of the UK’s Social Justice Fund, which involves building strategic partnerships with charities working in this space. Launched in 2020, the Fund supports social justice and anti-racist initiatives around the world.
Two years on, the Global Fund has pledged 71% of the total $100 million fund to more than 400 community organisations worldwide, covering areas including civic engagement, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, and education.
In the UK specifically, we have supported 18 partners, positively impacting over 1,600 young people. With over 10,000 hours of training and development sessions funded, over 90% of training participants reported improvements to their confidence, wellbeing and professional development. So, whilst it’s early days, we are already seeing positive outcomes from our funded programmes.
Making sure all employees can thrive
On the diversity and inclusion front, in a nutshell, our mission is to make sure that all employees can thrive. In practice that means having equitable hiring practices and a company culture that is fair and inclusive. So, I work closely with the People Experience Team, Employee Resource Groups and senior leadership, to make sure that our way of working is fair, considerate and adapts both to the needs of business and the needs of the employees.
The music industry has done a great job of reviewing who makes up the formal workforce over the last few years, which helps us understand which groups may be over or underrepresented. Within our company, our own data shows us that our senior leadership the makeup of our entry-level population is highly diverse, but with senior leadership there is more we can do. In response, we are taking active steps to change this, not just in who we bring into the company but how we develop our staff and foster an environment of inclusion where all our colleagues feel they belong and can progress.
Moving past perceptions
The music industry has often appeared to be male-dominated from the outside, driven by who rather than what you know, with late night working and a drinking culture, all of which might be off-putting for some. Being a relative newcomer, I am delighted to see that these preconceptions don’t hold true, and that the industry is much more welcoming and flexible than I expected.
Here at Sony Music, like many organisations, the pandemic shifted our working patterns. We have a flexible working policy, and our new fantastic head office in King’s Cross, London, is well set up for hybrid meetings.
Attracting and retaining diverse talent
In terms of policies that specifically address common barriers to a diverse workforce, Sony Music UK has been working for many years to introduced a raft of measures intended to help attract and retain talent, that will especially impact women in the workplace, including: equal parental leave, support for those who have suffered baby loss, assistance for those experiencing menopause and recently a first-in-industry paid childcare benefit.
We also believe it’s crucial to build a pipeline of talent for the industry that reflects the diversity and melting pot of music we all enjoy. For a number of years we have partnered with the Creative Mentor Network to run the Positive Influence Mentoring programme, matching mentors from the business with mentees who attended a state school and received free school meals during their schooling.
In addition, we run a 12-month full-time paid internship programme across our record labels, and this year we launched a new A&R [artist and repertoire] Academy, providing paid on-the-job bespoke training covering a range of topics from music rights to data, music trends to studio and mixing sessions, artist development and what really goes into releasing a track.
However, it’s not just about employees, it’s also about extending that culture of openness, support and transparency to our artists. It’s a priority this company has embodied for many years, even going back to 2018 when we sold our Spotify shares, giving more than $250m directly to artists, regardless of their unrecouped balance. More recently, we launched Artists Forward, a global initiative prioritising transparency and support for our music creators in all aspects of their development.
There are three key programmes within Artists Forward:
- Our Legacy Unrecouped Balance Programme pays through qualifying earnings to many of our long-standing artists and participants globally without regard to their recoupment status;
- Our Artist Assistance Programme promotes wellness for our signed talent and providing them with relevant information and key resources for their careers; and
- Our Real Time Artist Tools provides a suite of services for artists covering earnings, payment and insights capabilities that enable greater financial flexibility and fast, informed creative decision-making.
Artists Forward is very much an evolving initiative, and part of our ambition to always put our artists first.
Celebrating Black History Month
I do believe that it is important to celebrate Black History Month. Ideally, I would love that the stories and contributions of Black Britons were known and celebrated within our other significant events throughout the year. Until we are at that point, I do think there is a need to focus for the month on oft-neglected figures in our shared history, not just for Black Britons but ALL Britons.
This year we are holding staff events at Sony Music UK to showcase the work of the Black Curriculum in schools plus a spoken word performance on Black British History. Our Race and Ethnicity Employee Network will also hold events, as will some labels and departments. With our charity partners too, this will also be celebrated. Through the Social Justice Fund we shall be installing our first blue plaque in recognition of black historical figures, in partnership with the Nubian Jak Community Trust – in honour of the violinist George Bridgetower.
Coming up
There is so much that I am looking forward to at Sony Music UK, including the rollout of further diversity and inclusion training, a speaker series, continuing to work with our global teams and external partners and support their ongoing social justice initiatives, and, last but not least, seeing our staff and artists thriving and making amazing music!
