Record of the Day Interview with Geoff Taylor, CEO BPI & BRIT Awards

Early predictions suggest one female winner, outside of Best Female, and one BAME nominee may win on the night. If that’s the case, will you feel open to criticism?

Criticism tends to comes with the territory when you run a high-profile awards show, but we have worked very hard in recent years to ensure that the 1,000-strong BRIT Voting Academy not only draws on different areas of industry expertise but is also diverse and representative in its membership. Like last year, the male-female spread is about 52%/48% - though one day soon we’d love to get to this a precisely equal 50/50 split - whilst BAME participants make up nearly a quarter of the total. All we can do is to create an Academy that is expert and broadly representative of the population, put to them an extensive longlist of artists (based on clear eligibility criteria), and leave them to select the nominees and winners. We don’t tell them how to vote! This year we seem to have a pretty balanced but diverse set of nominations. Almost half this year (48%) have gone to female artists or acts which feature female artists in their line-up - and let’s not overlook the fact that Dua Lipa has bagged five nominations, the most of any female artist in the Awards’ history. All three of the artists nominated for our Critics’ Choice award are women. And it’s encouraging that just over four in 10 (42%) of the nominees are BAME, or include BAME artists in their line-up, consolidating the trend we saw last year.

How do you measure the success of the show, outside of viewing figures?

TV viewers are now only part of the picture. We reach millions of additional fans outside the UK through our live stream of the show on YouTube, and via our Facebook Live stream from the Red Carpet. We expect our YouTube broadcast to be bigger than ever this year given extra support from YouTube and terrific presenters in Conor Maynard and Yasmin Evans. And we’ll be aiming to do even better than last year on Facebook too, when our live stream from the Red Carpet attracted almost 5 million viewers. We have worked hard to make sure that the BRITs has a really engaging presence on all the key social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Musical.ly and Tumblr. We care passionately about how the audience reacts to our show, but most of all we judge ourselves by the impact that we can have for the artists. If we provide them with a compelling showcase that introduces their music to new audiences and enhances their reputation throughout their careers, then we have done our job.

With several of the year’s biggest hits coming from abroad, and in an era of singles, is there a case for a Best International Single category?

We review our Award categories annually and as streaming becomes the dominant form of music consumption, this is something we will bear in mind. However, one of the key purposes of the show is to promote British music and we would think carefully before introducing a new international category at the expense of an award for a British artist.

How do you continue grow international influence?

By continuing to develop the digital and social strategy with a range of online partners and through building the BRITs brand overseas. For example, last year for the first time we created local language content for the Italian and Spanish-language markets. In addition to live streaming the awards outside the UK on YouTube for a fifth successive year and reprising our successful live stream of the Red Carpet on Facebook, we are creating live content for global audiences on Instagram and Snapchat, so we hope BRITs content will be watched by more people around the world than ever before.

This year sees the return of a comedian as host, how do you ensure the presenter is entertaining as well as respectful to the Awards?

That’s a conversation that we have, but the hosts we pick are usually more than familiar with the show, its audience and heritage – often having grown up as avid music fans watching it with friends and family. They generally know how to approach the gig in terms of tone, and we want them to feel they can do the show in their own way and put their own mark on it to create an entertaining, memorable show. We’re thrilled this year to have Jack Whitehall on board – he’s a music fan and seriously excited to be doing this – as we are Clara Amfo, Roman Kemp and Alice Levine to head the ITV 2 coverage and Conor Maynard and Yasmin Evans as comperes of the global live stream with YouTube.

How do you produce a show that broadly satisfies all stakeholders and the viewers?

With so much great music out there and only two hours on air, it’s a big challenge to produce a show that keeps everyone happy. In terms of performances, we try to produce a balanced line-up that reflects the year in music, but we prioritise what we think will work for the viewers at home, because there’s no point making a show if it isn’t entertaining and viewers don’t tune in. Sometimes that isn’t the same as what some in the industry or critics would like to see. Nonetheless, we hope that the popularity of the show indicates that we get the balance right most of the time. We have a fantastic producer in Sally Wood and a very committed BRITs Committee, which has been chaired again this this year by Jason Iley. They provide the creative direction and artistic vision for the show.

It feels as though the entire event has now been ‘maximised’, in terms of the nominations programme, BRITs week shows, TV coverage on the night, and media exposure. What’s left to achieve?

It’s pleasing if people feel that the BRITs has made progress, but we are convinced that there is plenty more for us to do to grow its scale and impact and reach more fans in the UK and around the world. It was a big step for us to get the nominations launch show on a Saturday night ITV1 slot, and we want to further develop a longer BRITs season by expanding BRITs Week, so that more acts can benefit from the BRITs as a platform. We also have ambitious plans to reach audiences in new markets - while the event has a growing international following, I believe we have barely scratched the surface in terms of building a brand that can promote British music around the world. And it’s important to remember that the BRITs is a huge charity night, having raised more than £15 million for good causes including The BRIT School for performing arts in Croydon, War Child and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. We want to continue to increase the charitable impact of the show and to use it to showcase the social impact of music and the good that music can do. I hope there may be scope for the BRITs to do this even more in future.

There has been some criticism over the omission of Sam Smith, and then some ineligible artists such as Rita Ora, Little Mix, Clean Bandit – were these discussed and could you change the eligibility rules to ensure big hit providers are counted?

It’s funny – some people with a more jaundiced view of our industry seem determined to believe that the BRITs are some kind of carve up when it comes to nominations, when the simple truth is that it’s the 1,000-strong Voting Academy that independently decides. We have clear eligibility periods and then it is down to the Academy. I think Sam Smith’s omission was surprising given his successful album, but it has been a particularly strong and competitive year for British male solo artists and I guess the decision just underlines the independence of the Voting Academy. We are thrilled that Sam will be there to perform on the night and remind everyone of his exceptional talent. The BRITs is a huge charity night, having raised more than £15 million for good causes including The BRIT School for performing arts in Croydon, War Child and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.

Which year do you think gave us the most successful show?

It’s tough to pick out a particular year - everyone has their own favourite performances and BRITs moments. The last couple of years have been very successful in terms of audience and the shows have been well received. Sometimes it is something that we didn’t plan - like Madonna’s fall or Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion - that becomes the “water cooler” moment. We plan a great line-up, production and host - then the rest is down to the magic of live TV. Put thousands of high profile, unpredictable, creative people in a room, get them in a party mood, something usually happens!