Carrington Tucker
Raymond Daniels
Warner Records senior vp A&R Ray Daniels says he wants “to lead the instance of how alternate wants to happen.”
After penning an nameless letter about racial rigidity and injustice at file firms that Billboard published final Thursday as it circulated thru the music industry, outmoded govt Ray Daniels has now signed it with his have name.
Daniels, 40, has worked in any appreciate three major file firms, however is at command senior vp A&R at Warner Records. He tells Billboard that he made up our minds to divulge his identity and stand in the abet of the letter so that he would possibly well per chance succor lead alternate.
“Since the letter was posted I’ve considered all my peers posting it in each attach — I’ve learn their testimonies and struggles. Then I started getting calls from different of us pronouncing they heard it was me, and the draw in which most basic it is that we produce now not let this message die,” Daniels said in an electronic mail to Billboard. “I heard so many painful tales about systematic racism in the music industry, even from some of essentially the most highly efficient of us on this planet.
“As I sat around pondering withhold the dialog going, I believed relating to the whole civil unrest around us, the revolution happening in the streets. It was all on legend of the motion lastly had a face. A face that can’t be skipped over. George Floyd was murdered in a technique that would possibly well’t be defended. Nevertheless all of us keep it’s now not simply for George — it’s for the whole Georges who we’ve considered die time and all once more. So in impart to withhold the motion going forward, I decided it’s now not simply about me conserving my profession, it’s relating to the whole ‘Ray Daniels’ available who’ve lived these experiences that they are going to’t focus on about on legend of they produce now not wish to lose the jobs they’ve to feed their families. So now, if anybody wants to tell our sentiments and our experiences, or extra importantly, focus on solutions, I’m here to answer.”
Daniels, who splits his time between Atlanta and Los Angeles, says his have next divulge of industry is to work along with Warner “to lead the instance of how alternate wants to happen, and allow this to be the instance all different major entertainment firms observe.”
Read his letter here.
