Caroline Heldman Ph.D and Samantha Maloney are co-founders of the Sound Off Coalition, which recently published a report that called out “the scathing history and financial impact of decades of sexual abuse and coverups in the music industry”.
In the latest episode of the Music Ally Focus podcast, we spoke to Caroline and Samantha about their work, the impact of the report, what they describe as a pattern of “covering up” by big music companies, how they are using shareholder and political activism to try to make a difference – and the scale of their challenge.
Heldman is unambiguous on the size of the task: “The music industry, when it comes to sexual violence, is way behind other industries in terms of reforming. It’s actually way behind Hollywood at this point.” And, she says, the issue is endemic: “what we found is that it wasn’t just an issue with one artist or one label. It is across the board. It’s systemic. It’s a culture.”
Maloney agrees: “They treat women like second class citizens, they objectify us. There’s such misogyny in this industry that is so baked in, that it’s so hard to change.”
In their report, publicly-available information on reported allegations of sexual abuse, harassment and related misconduct involving well-known musicians and music industry executives is catalogued in detail. Amongst its key demands is a call for an end to the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that they say is used to silence survivors. (You can read the report here.)
Women are often motivated to not speak out, they explain. “Most women actually never come forward,” Heldman says, “because it’s just such a common experience in the industry that it’s normalised. So they’re not coming forward because it’s a combination of either fear of the repercussions – they see what happens to other women who do come forward – or it’s so normal that they think, well, if I come forward, what difference would it make?”
Heldman and Maloney stressed the deep-rooted nature of the issues within the music industry. Maloney is clear: “The music industry … is absolutely a boys’ club that is amplifying patriarchy. Our report covers 70 years. It’s gone unchecked the entire time.”
Despite all of this, Heldman and Maloney are positive about the headway they are making, and explain the paths they are taking: “We are pushing for the Senate to investigate the cover-ups and the corruption in the industry. What the Senate can do is … bring the CEOs of these big companies before them and interrogate them as to why this cover-up has been happening, and what they plan to do to change that. We’re pushing for shareholder activism, we’re pushing for consumer activism, and we’re also pushing for litigation – lots of cases coming forward, rather than just one or two at a time. It’s about hitting them where it actually hurts – the pocketbook.”
You can listen to this episode in the above embedded player – or in your preferred podcast platform here.
