The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer have forced businesses to grapple once again with their role in the push for social change.
“I don’t think they realise that they have as much power as they do,” says Merck Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a FTSE 250 company that invests in musicians’ back catalogues. “I do not think that we have put enough pressure on them to act on behalf of the community.”
Following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, in Georgia in February, Mercuriadis rallied the support of musicians in the state and wrote to local prosecutors demanding action. Authorities had been slow to take action even though his shooting was recorded on video.
Mercuriadis says he told prosecutors: “In the last 20 months, I’ve invested $100m in these songwriters in Georgia, who are all people that pay their taxes, and spend a lot of money in Georgia … They have a very, very loud voice and we want you to do something about this.”
He says he received an immediate reply and within 48 hours two men were arrested.
“That certainly is not all on us but I would like to think that we played a role by simply pointing out the economics … and that there would be ramifications if something wasn’t done,” says Mercuriadis, whose company owns songs written for the likes of Jay-Z, Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Madonna.
City bosses are under pressure to help improve equality – not just in wider society but within their own organisations.