Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Spotify's Progress Toward Racial Equity: Reflections, Commitments, and Updates for the Year Ahead From Elizabeth Nieto and Spotify's Equity and Impact Team

01/03/2022

Each year, as Spotify celebrates Black History Month, we are offered an opportunity to take stock of how we are doing as a company when it comes to our work in the pursuit of racial equity. This February marks my first as Spotify's Global Head of Equity & Impact, and it comes at a time when the company has faced new challenges as we learn and grow and the landscape evolves around us.

Making real and sustained progress has never been easy. Spotify understands the need for hard work, true reflection, and real accountability and we view our anti-racism efforts as an ongoing journey as we strive to live our values, both internally and externally. We are committed to fighting systemic racism and doubling down as this work advances. And while we still have plenty to do, we are making progress. That's why, at each step of the way, we are looking to partners, employees, and creators to help guide our actions for the long term.

We also understand the need to regularly communicate the progress we've made and identify actions that will build upon it in the years ahead. As we close out Black History Month in the U.S., we recognize the need to do more to combat racism around the world.

So today, members of the Equity and Impact team-that's me, Elizabeth Nieto, alongside Travis Robinson, Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, and Christopher Kenny, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Lead, Racial Equity Strategy-are sharing updates of both work we've done and work that's underway across our global markets in the pursuit of racial equity.

This is but a snapshot of our focus areas in our ongoing commitment to fostering an anti-racist culture at Spotify. And while we know we are not perfect, we remain unwavering in our approach and commitment to making meaningful change and progress as a company.

With gratitude,

Elizabeth, Travis, and Christopher

Deepening dynamic relationships with racial equity partners We continue to collaborate with our external racial equity partners to inform how we can best leverage our brand and platform to mitigate systemic racism. Those conversations will inform our strategies for the year ahead and beyond. As one example, we support the healing and growth of our Spotify community through our partnership with Brooklyn Minds, a mental health organization. Brooklyn Minds facilitates sessions for employees who've been impacted by racial trauma. We also provide individualized support through our employee assistance program.

Focusing on giving to organizations with measured impact for the Black community As we shared last April, Spotify's Racial Equity Donations & Giving Program has committed $10 million-including the matching of $3 million from Spotify employee donations around the world-to over 300 organizations. The remaining $7 million has been donated to more than 15 organizations dedicated to inspiring, connecting, and elevating the next generation of Black voices and creators. This will be an annual commitment through our Racial Equity Donations & Giving Program. We also recently announced the creation of 28 scholarships to Black HBCU students, in partnership with UNCF (the United Negro College Fund).

Formalizing Spotify's Creator Investment Fund Over the last several years, Spotifiers have built initiatives to identify, support, nurture, amplify, and celebrate the many voices of creators who deserve to be heard. Much more must be done to further this existing body of work, which is where our recently announced $100 Million Creator Investment Fund comes in. It's important that we continue to create new avenues of support to champion artists, songwriters, and podcast creators from diverse backgrounds. Spotify can help them build their own businesses by establishing passionate fan bases and substantially growing their reach.

There's great excitement for this work, with many ideas and questions about next steps we must take. While it's critical to move swiftly, we also understand it will take time to get this work right. Spotifiers from teams including Music, Podcasting, and Equity & Impact are co-developing plans and working closely alongside our creator and industry partners for input. We'll share early plans with our ERGs (employee resource groups) for their input and further refinement.

We have identified an initial list of the existing programs and opportunities where we think these funds can be put to work quickly, including adding incremental support to the ongoing work of Frequency, Sound Up, EQUAL, and Pride, among others. Additionally, we will dedicate talent and resources to help lead this global effort. We will work with internal teams and outside organizations to establish new programs focused on areas such as studio space, creator tools, marketing and PR support, coaching, and mentorship.

Expanding and scaling our current Black creator and consumer engagement brands Last May, when Spotify launched Frequency-our global initiative and holistic destination for celebrating Black art, entertainment, creativity, culture, and community both on- and off-platform-we did so with a mission to create a space that represents the wide spectrum of Black artistry. Since then, listeners have tuned into Frequency music playlists like Ripple Effect and House Party and learned from the Heard You podcast playlist. We're committed to celebrating and uplifting Black culture, creativity, and community year-round, with special emphasis on the month of February in honor of Black History Month in the U.S. This year, we've created a space to celebrate the multidimensionality of Black listeners, artists, and creators to truly encompass the breadth of Black creativity.

We recognize the need to do a better job of cascading these stories to a broader audience and will continue to scale our approach to our work of
LINK: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-02-28/spotifys-progress-toward-racia...
See more stories from spotify

Most recent headlines

04/08/2024

Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....

03/06/2024

Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...

28/04/2024

Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with URSA Broadcast G2

Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...

27/04/2024

L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik Discusses 1Q24 On CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime"

On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...

27/04/2024

Audinate Adds Major New Features to Dante Connect

PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...

27/04/2024

Bell Media Launches New Portfolio of FAST Channels

TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...

27/04/2024

Study: Broadcast TV Evening News Avoids Serious Economic Issues

An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...

27/04/2024

Hughes Opens Manufacturing Facility and Private 5G Incubation Center in Maryland

GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....

27/04/2024

Broadcasting Legend Harry Pappas Dead At 78

Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....

27/04/2024

Televisa Selects Synamedia For Broadcast Distribution Overhaul

ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....

27/04/2024

Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry

Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024 0 Comments By participating in this surve...

27/04/2024

SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show

SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show Brie Clayton April 26, 2024 0 Comments SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...

27/04/2024

Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Certificate

Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...

27/04/2024

Charter Reports Higher Q1 Profits Despite Broadband, Video Losses

Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....

27/04/2024

Environmental Groups Aim To Make Unscripted TV More Sustainable

Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...

27/04/2024

Sarah Garcia Named Weekend Anchor at Telemundo 40 in Texas

Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...

27/04/2024

CBS Sports Kicks Off FAST Channel for UEFA Champions League on Pluto TV

CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....

27/04/2024

Brian Roberts's Pay Rose To $35 Million at Comcast

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...

27/04/2024

John Lithgow Goes Back to School in Art Happens Here'

Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...

27/04/2024

FETV Wants Upfront Buyers Seeking Cable Viewers To Join Its Family

Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...

27/04/2024

Catchy Comedy Features Gomer Pyle, USMC' Weekend Marathon

Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....

26/04/2024

Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks off today at Cinpolis

Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...

26/04/2024

Interview: Lourdes Portillo, Director of Las madres de la Plaza de Mayo, La Ofrenda

[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...

26/04/2024

Career insights instead of everyday school life

Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...

26/04/2024

L3Harris Technologies Reports Strong First Quarter 2024 Results, Increases 2024 Profitability Guidance

Orders1 of $5.5 billion; book-to-bill of 1.06x Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 17%,...

26/04/2024

What Makes A Network Resilient?

Five Considerations For Communications Modernization In The 21st Century In the digital-enabled battlespace, the Joint Force needs to shoot, move and communica...

26/04/2024

CBS Sports Launches New Free Streaming Channel

CBS Sports has launched Champions League as a new, 24-hour streaming channel that will serve as the year-round destination for nonstop highlights of the UEFA ...

26/04/2024

Roku Streaming Homes Hit 81.6M

Despite tough competition in the streaming space, Roku reported solid results in Q1 2024, beating revenue expectations, with total net revenue up 19% YoY to $88...

26/04/2024

Sarah Farrell Named General Manager Of Pinewood Toronto Studios

LONDON AND TORONTO Pinewood Toronto Studios has appointed Sarah Farrell as general manager of the Studios in downtown Toronto....

26/04/2024

Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and Myriad Solutions

Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and...

26/04/2024

FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talent' award

FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talen...

26/04/2024

Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted

Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted Brie Clayton April 26, 2024 0 Comments Picture Shop announced Chris Evans will lead Unscripte...

26/04/2024

Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry

Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024 0 Comments By participating in this survey,...

26/04/2024

Hi Barbie! Mattel Launching First FAST Channels on Samsung TV Plus

Toy maker Mattel said it is working with Samsung to launch its first free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels later this year....

26/04/2024

Marty Moe Named President Of Trusted Media Brands

Trusted Media Brands (TMB) said it named Marty Moe as president....

26/04/2024

Ron Howard Directs Jim Henson Documentary for Disney Plus

Ron Howard is the director on Jim Henson Idea Man, a documentary that premieres on Disney Plus May 31. Henson of course created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big...

26/04/2024

Kraken Skate Away From RSN Root Sports for Deals With Tegna, Amazon

The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast...

26/04/2024

Warner Bros. Discovery Launches Olli First-Party Data Platform

Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising camp...

26/04/2024

The Equalizer' Gets Season 5 on CBS

CBS has renewed the drama The Equalizer, which will see season five on in 2024-2025. Queen Latifah stars....

26/04/2024

The CW Inks New Deal for Miss USA, Miss Teen USA

The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air ...

26/04/2024

Fuse Urging Young Viewers To Vote With Blunt Campaign

Fuse Media isn't mincing words in a campaign urging its young viewers to register and participate in the 2024 elections....

26/04/2024

Neil Gaiman's Sandman' Universe Expands With Dead Boy Detectives'

Dead Boy Detectives, a series from Neil Gaiman about a detective agency staffed by ghosts, debuts on Netflix April 25. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri are in t...

26/04/2024

The Story Collective opens largest film and TV studio in the heart of London

The Story Collective has gradually repurposed the former Mortlake Brewery to include production offices, workshops and sound stages By Matthew Corrigan Publi...

26/04/2024

Richard Perkett joins Amagi as chief product officer

Perkett joins the company following a 25 year career in product management, product marketing, engineering and user experience (UX) across multiple industries ...

26/04/2024

Teradek Announces Smaller More Robust Built-in Antennas f...

Teradek, the industry leader in wireless video transmitters and receivers, announced today the launch of new Bolt 6 LT 750 and Bolt 6 Monitor Module 750 RX with...

26/04/2024

Amagi Names Richard Perkett Chief Product Officer

NEW YORK Amagi has appointed Richard Perkett chief product officer (CPO)....

26/04/2024

NAB Board Election Results Announced

WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the results of the 2024 NAB Radio and Television Board of Directors elections. The...

26/04/2024

Mattel to Launch First FAST Channels on Samsung TV Plus

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & NEW YORK Mattel has announced a deal to launch its first three 24/7 free ad supported streaming (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung...

26/04/2024

NextGen TV Launches In Portland, Maine

PORTLAND, Maine Viewers here can now receive the NextGen TV signals of five local stations with the launch of ATSC 3.0 service from host station WPFO, which is ...