Hip-hop and R&B audio consumption had grown 19.2% in the first quarter this year compared to the same time last year, and beat the 11.2% gain for the overall industry. But other than people of color who own their own companies, there are very few who work as top executives.
"There's definitely a challenge in the music industry with respect to the pipeline of black executives, which is interesting when you think about the impact of the music that is being sold, because a lot of that is urban music and black culture," says Julian Petty, partner at law firm Nixon Peabody. Petty made his comments to Billboard earlier this year. "You can't just have a few folks there. We've got to figure that out."