Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We are committed to supporting the fairer distribution of equity in the electronic music scene. How we do this spans the breadth of our company values, internal operations and culture, as well as the content we produce and feature on the site.
As part of our commitment to transparency and accountability, this section of RA is dedicated to providing our readers with updates on our actions to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
This page will evolve as we do. We will update it throughout the year with major announcements, and commitments on critical work we are doing across the business to support diversity, equity and inclusivity at RA and in dance music.
If you have any questions about any of the information below or ideas as to how we can improve, please contact [email protected].
Editorial & Community Output
Dance music—an imperfect umbrella term we use to refer to anything played by DJs in clubs, including disco, house, techno, jungle, drum & bass, dubstep and so on—is originally Black music. At some point, though, this stopped being self-evident. Today, many people are surprised when they learn about the Black origins of these sounds, a gap in perspective for which RA and other publications bear responsibility.
Our goal here is to fundamentally shift our focus and rethink our mission as a publication. We're committed to using our reach and resources to empower Black artists and writers, and more generally do everything we can to promote social equity in our scene. We hope that the result will help to correct, rather than participate in, the whitewashing of this culture.
2023
We will continue to be transparent on the representation in our coverage and we have committed to providing annual updates in an effort to be more forthcoming on the ways in which we are accomplishing and adhering to pledges we first made in summer 2020 (an overview of our pledges can be found below).
We acknowledge that this work will never be complete and we will continue to centre diversity and inclusion into all our operations, while holding ourselves publicly accountable through transparent disclosure of our endeavours.
As of December 2023, our completed actions and updates from January 1st through December 31st 2023 are as follows:
• 47 percent of all reviews focused on music from BIPOC artists or collectives, while 42 percent focused on women, nonbinary and trans artists or collectives.
• 70 percent of our features focused on BIPOC artists and collectives, and 66 percent focused on women or nonbinary artists and collectives.
• 35 percent of our features were written by journalists of colour, while 59 percent were written by women or nonbinary writers.
• 53 percent of our RA Podcasts and RA Exchanges focused on BIPOC artists, while 53 percent focused on women or nonbinary artists.
• 54 percent of all films featured BIPOC artists or collectives, and 48 percent of all films featured women/nonbinary artists or collectives.
2022
As of December 2022, our completed actions and updates from January 1st through December 1st 2022 are as follows:
• 40 percent of all reviews focused on music from BIPOC artists or collectives, while 37 percent focused on women, non-binary and trans artists or collectives.
• 47 percent of our features focused on BIPOC artists and collectives, and 47 percent focused on women or non-binary artists and collectives.
• 40 percent of our features were written by journalists of colour, while 64 percent were written by women or non binary writers.
• 46 percent of our RA Podcasts and RA Exchanges focused on BIPOC artists, while 50 percent focused on women or non-binary artists.
• 46 percent of all films featured BIPOC artists or collectives, and 59 percent of all films featured women/non-binary artists or collectives.
• In May 2022, RA announced a new governance board and independent directors.
• We continued to make an ongoing financial commitment to organisations benefiting Black and underrepresented communities, by committing at least £50,000 towards community partnerships. A full overview of all of our community projects to date can be found here. If you would like to discuss a project, please email [email protected] for further details.
2021
As of December 2021, our completed actions from January 1st through December 1st 2021 are as follows:
• 58 percent of our films focused on Black artists or collectives, while 52 percent of our films focused on women/non-binary artists and collectives. (Target 50 percent)
• 53 percent of all reviews focused on music from BIPOC artists or collectives, while 36 percent focused on women, non-binary and trans artists or collectives. (Target: 50 percent)
• 72 percent of our features focused on BIPOC artists and collectives, while 48 percent focused on women or non-binary artists and collectives. (Target: 30 percent)
• 69 percent of our RA Podcasts and RA Exchanges focused on BIPOC artists, while 52 percent focused on women or non-binary artists. (Target: 50 percent)
• 55 percent of our features were written by journalists of colour, while 49 percent were written by women or non binary writers. (Target: 25 percent and 35 percent)
• We launched the four-part Re-record series highlighting 120 important artists in electronic music, in addition to starting the monthly Black Minds Matter RA Exchange podcast series.
• We continue to onboard and work with new writers, with much of our output in 2021 coming from young freelancers and a budget allocated to work with them.
• We committed at least £50,000 towards community partnerships benefiting Black and other minority communities, updates on what projects we support can be found here.
In December 2021, we made a number of commitments to our staff and community for the year ahead. Updates on each of these actions will be provided in December 2022:
• Under the guidance of our editor-in-chief, we are spearheading a new editorial strategy with diversity and inclusion initiatives at the core. This includes extending last spring's community pledge of racial equity into the daily working process and the overarching editorial ethos, which involves commissioning writers of color, writers of diasporic perspectives and writing about Black, indigenous and POC artists to continually expand RA's representation of talent. We will continue to be transparent on the representation in our coverage and will produce a report on an annual basis (December 2022) which will be updated on this page.
• We will work with non-English-speaking contributors and translators to consider key stories beyond the Anglophone world. This will include more coverage of non-Western countries to widen the scope of reported scenes and regional genres, as a step towards more comprehensive, globally-conscious reporting.
• We will continue to make an ongoing financial commitment to organisations benefiting Black and other minority communities, by committing at least £50,000 towards community partnerships. If you would like to discuss a project, please email [email protected] for further details. A full overview of our projects to date can be found here.
2020
In December 2020 we made a set of further commitments for the first half of 2021. These were communicated in our end of year update, and are summarised below:
• As part of our pledge to make an ongoing financial commitment to organisations benefiting Black and other minority communities, in 2021 RA will commit to at least £50,000 to Black and minority communities through partnerships. The first of these will be a partnership with Black Minds Matter, which also includes a year-long series of editorial features, launching in January.
• 50 percent of our films will support Black artists and collectives. 50 percent will support women and non-binary artists and collectives.
• 50 percent of all reviews will focus on music from BIPOC artists.
• 30 percent of our features will focus on BIPOC artists, 30% on women and non-binary artists.
• At least 50 percent of all RA Podcasts and RA Exchanges will focus on women and non-binary artists. At least one third will focus on BIPOC artists.
• At least 25 percent of our features will be written by BIPOC journalists. 35 percent of our features will be written by women & non-binary journalists.
• We will publish a feature series dedicated to telling the stories of underrepresented histories in the electronic music scene. Part of this project is due to launch in early 2021
• We will keep working toward an ever more diverse pool of writers. In addition to seeking out experienced journalists we want to work with for the first time, we will set aside time and resources to help beginner writers hone their craft.
• Publish RA's editorial style guide
In June 2020 we made a number of commitments to editorial changes in our Op-Ed piece An Update From RA's Editors. In the following six months up to December 2020 here’s what we have done:
• We have published work by ten new Black writers since the statement was published
• 90% of Rewind reviews published since July have focused on Black electronic music records
• 27, or 54 percent, of 2020's RA Podcasts so far have come from BIPOC artists
• 19, or 50 percent, of 2020's RA Exchanges have focused on BIPOC industry figures
• 33, or 47 percent, of our feature-length articles, have been written by BIPOC writers, 64 percent of whom are women or non-binary writers
• We have updated our internal Style Guide, and in September we published RA's first public editorial integrity guidelines
• We published a how-to guide for getting involved as a writer at RA to improve the accessibility and diversity of the existing writing pool.
Staff and Contributors
RA is committed to our staff and contributors being a reflection of the scenes and communities we represent at all levels within our business. We will continue to work on including more diverse voices across our team through internal promotion and external recruitment.
As of April 2024, we are B Corp certified, furthering our commitment to being a force for good and advocating for a more inclusive and equitable electronic music community. Our commitment to sustainability and environmental impact shapes our approach to our work and company culture.
In recent years we have made efforts to improve as an employer and organisation. Our current commitments to staff and recruitment are:
• Become a more diverse workforce that is representative of geographies where the business operates and the communities RA represents.
• Strive to promote the hiring of people from underrepresented communities by continually reviewing and improving our recruitment process, ensuring that these processes are as unbiased as possible with a wide-reaching candidate pool.
• Provide equality, fairness and respect for all people under our employment, whether full-time, part-time, temporary or freelance.
• Create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, micro-aggressions, victimisation and discrimination, where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued, promoting dignity and respect for all.
• To all our global offices and the cities we operate in, ensure the application of the principle of the [UK] Equality Act 2010 of protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, sex (gender) and sexual orientation.
• We will continue to invest in the training and development of our staff regarding all issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
2023
As of December 2023, our completed actions are:
• Our Diversity, Inclusion, and Awareness Committee evolved into the Impact Committee with rotating members. This committee holds senior leadership accountable and acts as a space for employees to gather and share ideas on how RA can improve. The Impact Committee creates a space for discussion and action for all employees to bring social justice, DEI, and employment issues or concerns to the table.
• We partnered with The Loop and introduced monthly harm reduction and drug educational workshops for all staff.
• Our partnership with Hustle Crew has evolved to monthly all-staff sessions on various DEI topics, keeping conversations front of mind across the company.
• Increased training and development sessions, including monthly coaching sessions for our team leads and presentation training with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.
• Introduced standardised annual leave, ensuring all employees have generous and equal time off regardless of location.
• Reintroduced Mental Health Days, providing additional time off to support our staff, giving time to pause a rest and as a precaution to avoid periods of poor mental health.
• Introduced 401ks as part of a formal offering with a matched scheme to promote financial stability in the USA, further supporting our global staffing network with pensions schemes.
Pre 2023
Previous key actions have included:
• RA introduced a governance board and independent directors in 2022 with community representation at its core.
• A detailed review of RA's internal and external recruitment process and updated a redefined inclusive recruitment policy.
• In 2020 we created a staff-led Diversity, Inclusion and Awareness Committee to hold RA and its leadership accountable to all of its commitments to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, both internally and externally.
• Expanded our recruitment network, working with a diverse range of recruitment organisations, including BYP, SocialFIXT, shesaid.so, shecancode, WXMB2, to ensure we attract a diverse selection of candidates when filling any roles.
• RA is an official Stonewall's Diversity Champion. Through this program, RA has participated in Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index, which will audit the inclusivity of our organisation.
• All full-time staff completed a series of unconscious bias and fostering inclusions training sessions conducted by Hustle Crew.
• In September 2021, we commissioned Hustle Crew to assist us with undertaking a Diversity Profile of our staff.
If you'd like to talk to us about any of our above projects, please contact us at [email protected]