Yahoo Finance Recording Academy Commits To Grammy Awards Inclusion Rider
The Recording Academy announced today that its Grammy Awards will be the first major music award production to commit to the use of the contract addendums known as inclusion riders.
In a statement released today, the Academy said that the rider is “designed to be a robust tool to ensure equity and inclusion at every level during the production” of the 2022 Grammy Awards show. The plan was initially announced in August and confirmed today. The awards show is set for Jan. 31, 2022.
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Inclusion Riders are contract provisions that set forth a process for hiring and casting to expand and diversify the candidate pool. They encourage the hiring of qualified cast and crew who have been traditionally underrepresented in productions.
The Grammy rider is part of the Recording Academy’s partnership with Color Of Change on an initiative called #ChangeMusic. The Academy said in its announcement today that it hopes the rider will “help inspire peers to modernize hiring practices industry-wide and foster an environment of inclusion.”
“We were proud to work with a very diverse crew last year for the Grammy Awards,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, in a statement, “and this is the culmination of a years-long effort to create a rider for the production of the Grammys. But this is only the beginning. We are committed to putting in the real work required to help create a pipeline of diverse talent and drastically change representation.”
“With the Inclusion Rider, Color Of Change and the Recording Academy are working to change the rules that have enabled systemic discrimination in the music business for far too long,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color Of Change. “The Inclusion Rider is a concrete accountability mechanism aimed at breaking through an endless stream of empty commitments. It will ensure that Black people finally gain the authority in the industry that matches their essential contributions to it.”
According to Kalpana Kotagal, civil rights attorney and co-author of the Inclusion Rider, the addendum includes the “four key elements” of the tool: a commitment to deepening and diversifying hiring pools, benchmarks and targets for hiring, the collection and analysis of applicant and hiring data, and strict accountability measures.
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