SONY GETS BEHIND BLACK MUSIC MUSEUM

Sony Music Group is the first music company to partner with The National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, setting up a scholarship program to introduce students to the music industry through the lens of African-American history and culture.

NMAAM and Sony Music’s Global Social Justice Fund are creating the Sony Music Scholars Black Music Certification and Scholarship Program, creating a curriculum, course and certification.

In addition, SMG will underwrite the museum’s Business Behind the Music exhibit, to be unveiled when the museum opens on Monday (1/18), MLK Day. The exhibit will feature Black music executives as well as record labels and publishers that have played a significant role throughout American history.

“Sony Music’s partnership helps us tell a unique story of Black music executives and also looks to the future to help create the next generation of leaders in music,” NMAAM President and CEO H. Beecher Hicks III said.

Towalame Austin, EVP, Philanthropy and Social Impact at Sony Music Group, said, “By telling the complex, overlooked and expansive history of Black artists and songwriters across all genres of music in this country, NMAAM is adding to Nashville’s already rich and growing arts community and shining a light on key parts of our music history.”