The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) has revealed that an “alarming majority” of workers in the UK’s music industry have experienced some form of discrimination at work, with freelance and self-employed workers being particularly vulnerable.
The ISM published the new report on discrimination and harassment in the music industry based on a survey of 660 of its more than 11,000 members over the course of six weeks in May and June this year. It found that 66 per cent of the music industry workers surveyed reported experiencing discrimination, which is up from 47 per cent from a similar survey in 2018.
The survey found that the alleged perpetrator in 72 per cent of incidents was in a position of power or influence, while 78 per cent of reported incidents were committed against women. Reports of discrimination were most common among Black, Asian or mixed workers, as well as those belonging to more than one ethnic group, women and disabled workers.
Vick Bain, the organisation’s president, and co-author of the report said: “Everybody deserves to be safe at work and it’s a scandal that our brilliant music workforce is being let down in this way. As we highlight in the report, there are solutions to the problems we face.”
According to data from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), self-employed and freelance workers account for as much as 70 per cent of the workforce across the music and performance industries.
The ISM report found that self-employed and freelance workers were most likely to experience discrimination but the least likely to officially report it, with 88 per cent of incidents involving freelancers not reported at the time, compared to 77 per cent across all incidents.
Three-quarters of all respondents said that there weren’t clear procedures for reporting discrimination – this figure is also higher for self-employed workers in the industry, with 90 per cent saying they weren’t sure how to report an incident.
Other common reasons for not reporting discrimination included that it was ‘just the culture’, there being no one to report to and the fear of losing future work.
