Dear community,
We are writing to inform you of our decision to pause shesaid.so's partnership with the International Music Summit (IMS) this year.
As some of you may be aware, over the years, shesaid.so has collaborated with IMS on various initiatives, including panel discussions, workshops, networking events, and artist showcases. During this time, IMS has taken significant steps to increase diversity and inclusion in their programming as well as in their audience - and we are proud of the contributions we have made towards this change.
After a thorough review, we have decided to pause our partnership for its 2023 edition. This decision was not made lightly and is primarily motivated by the recent acquisition of IMS by Beatport (announced on February 1st, 2023), in addition to financial and strategic considerations that we are forced to make given the current economic climate.
As an organization dedicated to empowering women and underrepresented communities in the music industry, it is important that we partner with organizations that authentically share our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. We have a responsibility to hold our partners accountable and to ensure that our collaborations reflect our values and mission. Given Beatport’s majority stake in IMS and the recent allegations made against Beatport’s leadership team, it is currently unclear the impact this will have on the summit in 2023 and moving forward.
Real change is difficult and takes time. We are seeing some positive changes being implemented at the Beatport Group, and we look forward to seeing the results come into full effect over the next few months and years. In the meantime, we remain open to conversations with both IMS and Beatport in regards to reigniting our partnership in the future so long as a firm and authentic commitment to our values will continue to be sustained.
For further context in regards to the allegations surrounding Beatport, on August 23rd of last year, VICE published an article in regards to the toxic workplace culture that permeated the Beatport Group dating back to 2015. We immediately called for a Community Town Hall meeting and asked the community for guidance on how we should proceed. On that same day, we were slated to announce that we would be taking part in Beatport’s inaugural ReConnect Summit in NYC - specifically to host a fireside chat and networking event as part of the summit.
The event was scheduled to take place at the end of September, and, following the Community Town Hall we hosted a week later, we decided to withdraw from the event and announced our decision privately to the community on August 30th. A week after that, on September 7th, Beatport announced that ReConnect is postponed until further notice (to our knowledge, there have not been any further updates since). Our friends at Black Artist Database also suspended their editorial partnership with Beatport on August 24th 2022, a day after the article was published. On August 29th, 2022, Beatport CEO Robb McDaniels released a statement in response to the article that is no longer available. The general consensus in our community at the time was that it lacked acknowledgement and apology.
Needless to say, it was an extremely difficult time for all involved; on that note, I want to send my appreciation to everyone who reached out with their words of support. It truly gave me the strength and the clarity to navigate the tumult in the best way possible - not just for shesaid.so, but the music community as a whole. As you can imagine, this story had many intricacies and nuances to consider. Not only the nature and extent of the alleged toxic behavior; the company's response and how this may impact its future, the wellbeing of past and current Beatport staff as well as other people affected; the legal, financial and ethical implications; but also the impact on the music industry. It was brought to our attention that Beatport has taken some steps to address the allegations of workplace toxicity, including hiring an independent consultant to conduct an investigation and implementing new HR policies. However, some current and former employees expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of these measures, citing a lack of transparency and accountability.
At the time of writing this, 7 months had passed since the article was published. To my knowledge, no additional press coverage is currently in the works by the original author. Following our decision to withdraw from ReConnect, we have expressed our interest in collaborating with Beatport to explore best solutions forward, and it wasn’t until the end of March 2023 that two newly appointed Board Members reached out to us to relay the steps they have taken. As Beatport’s acquisition of IMS was getting close to being confirmed, IMS leadership has helped reestablish contact between myself and Robb McDaniels, who later on shared a letter detailing the steps the company has taken or intends to take to further address the issues raised by the article. While we did appreciate this initiative, we believe that in order for real accountability to be upheld, it is best to pause any affiliation with Beatport for the time being until enough time has passed for those efforts to come into effect.
In the meantime, we will continue to seek out partnerships and collaborations that support our mission and vision. We remain committed to working towards a more equitable and just music industry for all, and we invite other organizations and individuals that share our values to join us in this effort. In doing so, we acknowledge the risks that we face as we aim to nurture partnerships that not only fund our organization but enable us to develop programs that carry our mission forward and invest back into the community. As we navigate this process, we are committed to holding our partners accountable to the best of our ability and, when possible, facilitating change from within.
Today, we are proud to join hands with Black Artist Database in expressing our current position and look forward to continuing these transparent conversations with other partners in the future. We want to thank IMS for their past collaboration and hope that they will continue to uphold their commitment to change as part of the new leadership - with or without our involvement. As mentioned, we remain open to future collaborations and will monitor their developments over the next few months.
We hope that this decision will spark a productive conversation and lead to meaningful change in the industry. We invite our members and allies to further discuss this decision and explore best steps moving forward at our upcoming Community Town Hall on May 9th, 2023. RSVP details and other info will be shared closer to the time.
If you have any thoughts, questions or suggestions in the meantime, please contact hello@shesaid.so.