Harmony X Collective · Research & Data
THE DATA
DOESN'T LIE.
"Music itself is inclusive — so why isn't the industry?"Jessica Entner, JEM Music · via Little Black Book
The following research draws from market analysis, industry surveys, and original data collected by HXC founder Messielia Bangura as part of her 2023 graduate thesis at Berklee College of Music — supplemented with current 2024–2025 data. The case for cultural competence in music isn't ideological. It's economic, operational, and more urgent than ever.
THE MUSIC
MARKET
TODAY
The global music industry just recorded its tenth consecutive year of revenue growth. As it expands into Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Asia — the demand for genuine cultural fluency has never been higher. The market is global. The knowledge to navigate it responsibly is not keeping pace.
THE GREAT
RETREAT
Since January 2025, corporate DEI across the United States has undergone an unprecedented rollback. President Trump's executive orders ended all federal diversity programs and created seismic pressure across the private sector. Major companies — from Meta and Amazon to Target and Google — have cut DEI teams, removed language from websites, and rebranded departments entirely.
But what the headlines miss: companies aren't abandoning the need for cultural intelligence. They're abandoning the checkbox. In music — where cultural fluency is the product — that distinction matters enormously.
HXC Is Not Corporate DEI
Cross-cultural music strategy is not a diversity checkbox. It is not a compliance program. It is the business intelligence that determines whether a global artist, label, or brand thrives in an interconnected world — or becomes the next cautionary tale.
What companies are walking away from is generic, reactive, compliance-driven DE&I with no industry context. What HXC offers is proactive, music-specific cultural competence — the kind that prevents a K-pop label from making international headlines for the wrong reasons, helps a U.S. artist respectfully enter a new market, and gives music businesses the tools to build lasting global trust. No executive order changes any of that.
THE COST
OF
INACTION
The political climate has shifted. The financial reality has not. Cultural missteps in music still produce the same losses — to revenue, reputation, and creative relationships. And with the fastest-growing music markets now in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, the stakes of cultural illiteracy are only rising.
The retreat has a cost, too. Target publicly acknowledged during a 2025 earnings call that rolling back its DEI efforts hurt customer engagement. The share of S&P 500 companies linking executive compensation to DEI metrics fell from 68% in 2024 to 35% in 2025 — not because diversity stopped mattering to consumers, but because political risk recalibrated corporate priorities. In music, where fans vote with streams, ticket purchases, and cultural loyalty, that miscalculation has immediate consequences.
VOICES
FROM
THE FIELD
What do music industry professionals actually think about cultural awareness, accountability, and inclusion in their industry? These are not answers from a general workforce survey. They come from practitioners inside the world HXC was built to serve — and they point clearly to a gap that no executive order can close.
WHY IT
MATTERS.
With the global music market at $29.6B and its fastest-growing regions rooted in non-Western cultures — Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia — the cost of cultural illiteracy has never been higher.
Audiences are not passive. Today's music consumers are deeply culturally literate, and they reward authenticity. When an artist, label, or brand engages a culture with genuine understanding, fans invest — in streams, in tickets, in loyalty. When they don't, they notice. Cultural missteps don't just generate bad press; they erode the trust that makes music resonate in the first place.
Authentic representation — in sound, in image, in narrative — is what makes music travel. When artists and brands approach culture with real knowledge and genuine respect, they don't just avoid harm. They build the kind of fan relationships that sustain careers.
THE DATA
DOESN'T LIE.
"Music itself is inclusive — so why isn't the industry?"Jessica Entner, JEM Music · via Little Black Book
The following research draws from market analysis, industry surveys, and original data collected by HXC founder Messielia Bangura — supplemented with current 2024–2025 data. The case for cultural competence in music is economic, operational, and more urgent than ever.
THE MUSIC MARKET TODAY
The global music industry just recorded its tenth consecutive year of revenue growth. As it expands into Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia, the demand for cultural fluency has never been higher.
THE GREAT RETREAT
Since January 2025, corporate DEI has undergone an unprecedented rollback. President Trump's executive orders ended all federal diversity programs and created seismic pressure on the private sector. Major companies cut DEI teams, removed language from websites, and rebranded departments.
But companies aren't abandoning the need for cultural intelligence. They're abandoning the checkbox. In music — where cultural fluency is the product — that distinction matters enormously.
Cross-cultural music strategy is not a diversity checkbox. It is the business intelligence that determines whether a global artist, label, or brand thrives — or becomes the next cautionary tale.
What companies are walking away from is generic, reactive, compliance-driven DE&I with no industry context. What HXC offers is proactive, music-specific cultural competence. No executive order changes any of that.
THE COST OF INACTION
The political climate has shifted. The financial reality has not. Cultural missteps still produce the same losses — and with the fastest-growing music markets in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, the stakes are only rising.
The retreat has a cost, too. Target acknowledged in 2025 that rolling back DEI hurt customer engagement. S&P 500 companies linking executive pay to DEI metrics fell from 68% to 35% in one year. In music, fans vote with streams and loyalty — and they notice.
In 2023, HXC founder Messielia Bangura conducted original research with 30 music industry professionals to assess the real state of cultural awareness and accountability in music. In a landscape where institutional DEI is retreating, independent research like this matters more than ever.
VOICES FROM THE FIELD
What do music industry professionals think about cultural awareness and accountability? These answers come from practitioners inside the world HXC was built to serve.
WHY IT MATTERS.
With the global music market at $29.6B and its fastest-growing regions rooted in non-Western cultures — Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia — the cost of cultural illiteracy has never been higher.
Audiences are not passive. Today's music consumers are deeply culturally literate, and they reward authenticity. When an artist, label, or brand engages a culture with genuine understanding, fans invest — in streams, in tickets, in loyalty. When they don't, they notice. Cultural missteps don't just generate bad press; they erode the trust that makes music resonate in the first place.
Authentic representation — in sound, in image, in narrative — is what makes music travel. When artists and brands approach culture with real knowledge and genuine respect, they don't just avoid harm. They build the kind of fan relationships that sustain careers.