POWER UP is a dynamic initiative supporting Black music creators, industry professionals and executives, addressing anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the music sector. The industry-funded participant programme is co-founded by PRS Foundation and Ben Wynter and managed in partnership with YouTube Music, Beggars Group and the Black Music Coalition. Other supporters include Creative Scotland and Arts Council Wales, who help the collaborative network target systemic changes and deliver support on the ground in those countries. Annual meet-ups, dedicated mentors, professional development coaches, mental health first aid training and grant funding are all key elements of the initiative.
We interviewed Yaw Owusu, Senior Manager of POWER UP, to learn more about the programme’s aims and successes, helping its participants break through glass ceilings, and the passion of its vibrant, diverse and inclusive cohort. We hear Yaw’s insights on nurturing more diverse future leaders, the importance of providing support where the need is, and how homogeneousness puts the sustainability of the UK music industry at risk.
What are your key motivations for addressing diversity and inclusion within the music industry?
The motivation of POWER UP, broadly, is to tackle anti-Black racism in the UK music industry and make it more of an equitable music industry for Black music creators and industry professionals. It's also about making sure we maximise opportunities and options for Black music creators and industry professionals to contribute to the music industry authentically and without compromise or restriction and that Black music creators and industry professionals are compensated fairly for that contribution.
What do you believe are the biggest risks of not addressing EDI in your sector?
The risks are so broad, but if we look at it from the way economists may look at it, there's a massive financial impact because we know—and this is measured—that failure to have and maximise diversity in the workplace or any industry means that the industry doesn't grow and isn't worth as much.
You can't really make true change if people in certain spaces are only of one background, one race, or one gender. This is why I think the biggest risk is the sustainability of the music industry. The music industry will not be sustainable, never mind able to grow, if the people in it and driving it, are homogeneous. It just doesn't work.
Our fight isn't just about numbers, it’s about how people are treated and what the options are to go to the top and influence, and how much power people have to implement their vision, their skill set and their experiences.
What are the main goals of POWER UP and what does it try to achieve?
I think a very holistic way of saying it is that we want to go to where the need is and be able to help there. So, not only do we have the participant programme where we have 40 individuals, 20 music creators, and 20 industry professionals every year who go through skill building, capacity building, and leadership development and come out the other end having grown in their work and their professional practice— as well having grown their network - but we are also looking at the people who've applied and identifying cold spots. We can then design specific work around those areas—on the ground with participants but also using the leverage of POWER UP, our partner organisations and PRS Foundation to look at and lean on systems.
There are certain conversations POWER UP or PRS Foundation can have with Art Council, UK Music or the government that individuals might not be able to have. We understand that there's a level of responsibility to lean into where the change needs to be and be agents for that positive change.
What is the problem that the participant programme aims to tackle?
Again, it’s broad, but the basic problem we are trying to tackle is that so many exceptional Black industry professionals and Black music creators in the UK music industry are hitting a glass ceiling where they may not be able to ascend any further, predominantly due to barriers related to societal and systematic racism.
We start with our own diagnostic of where they are, what they need and what the challenges are and then we see how we can align with the support and solutions that POWER UP offer with the aim of helping them break through that glass ceiling.
How is what you’re doing with POWER UP embedded within the bigger picture at PRS Foundation?
Working with exciting music creators of any genre from any background is the core principle of the ‘why’ behind PRS Foundation. As the foundation has grown, they have really started to look at the systems around these music creators and the impact they have and the roles they play on the existing and potential of future success, opportunities and sustainability.
The industry, made up of the various different sectors, has a huge role to play here; industry can change the opportunities and the impact of what these music creators are doing. The Foundation really started to understand that role more and the importance of industry professionals being of the same backgrounds or having the same shared experience as some of the music creators and the impact of supporting them too.
So, when POWER UP launched just over four years ago, we realised how tightly it aligned with PRS Foundation’s main focus and values. Not just to support exceptional music creators to make and share music but to figure out what would allow them to make even more of an impact with it. Intervention initiatives like this, where people are developed, empowered and connected so they don't have to be tiptoeing around who they are and what they bring to the table from a cultural capital standpoint, I think has massive value.
What do you think makes POWER UP successful?
The design of the programme and POWER UP as a whole has been done with so much thought and so much intention and so much compassion that it's completely fit for purpose. I also think all of the people and organisations involved genuinely care. It's that passion that makes POWER UP actually work but without the vehicle being what it is, even with passion, we might not be able to incrementally move the individuals or the system forward. Those things work hand in hand.
Also, having a symbiotic relationship with the changing industry. Yes, industry should back us, but we should also help industry do a better job of what they're trying to do. It's not just about writing a cheque and feeling like your hands are clean because that cheque has been written. It is also about us being able to advise on some of the blind spots that they can't necessarily see. If you help industry to sustain and grow, it provides you with more opportunities, so it's a business case for them too.
How important has the network around POWER UP been?
We’re now at 160 in the network. Then you add on our partners and those individuals who work with those organisations. Then you add on our executive steering committee. Then you add on our ambassadors. So, you’re talking around 225 people in the network supporting Black people in the music industry—to help each other, to support each other and to champion each other. We see so much quality work output and support that comes just from that network working autonomously.
It sounds really simple, but it has taken a lot of work because we've got to create a safe space for all these individuals to come together where they don't feel threatened. When we induct people into the POWER UP participant programme, a lot of people are coming from environments were they have not felt connected and supported. Even though they are exceptional people and driven leaders, they may have been very isolated, and they might have even been through traumatic experiences. Bringing these people together allows them to build trust and connection through commonalities and empathy, and they really look to each other for support. That’s something we all feel is so, so powerful and something that we will have to measure the impact of at some point.
One of the biggest things is that there’s a place— whether it's a WhatsApp group or events we run—where these individuals can come together, feel supported, feel heard, and know that if they need anything, they’ve got people they can go to. I don't think, as Black people working in the UK music industry, we've ever had that. The fact that it's going to continue to grow for as long as this initiative runs is one of the most inspiring parts of POWER UP and also one of the most tangible outputs.
One day, POWER UP will hopefully not need to exist, but the network will be its legacy. It will mean there is always a place where we have a foundation, where we can actually trade among ourselves and support each other. So, then, when we go out into wider communities and other cultures, we know we've got something to fall back on. I think that's really important.