Inside Sony Music
- Sony Music Group Recognizes Global Accessibility Awareness Day With Brittany Davis and an Immersive Listening Experience
- May 16, 2024
Every year, the third Thursday in May marks Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), an opportunity for everyone to recognize and learn more about how digital tools, spaces, and content can be made more accessible and inclusive—specifically for the more than one billion people who have disabilities or impairments. Sony Music Group joins our global communities and disability rights advocates in continually working to build a more inclusive digital future.
To celebrate GAAD this year, Sony Music Group’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion hosted a special event with The Orchard distributed artist Brittany Davis, an incredibly gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and engineer from Seattle, WA. Brittany is blind and describes herself as a vessel of sound and experiences music in spirit and colors. Everything about Brittany represents music and everything is an instrument to her.
Hosted on May 7th at Sony Music Headquarters in NYC, Sony Music Group colleagues sat down for an immersive listening experience of Brittany’s new debut album, Image Issues. Attendees were invited to wear eye masks or close their eyes to experience the music the same way Brittany does. Attendees were able to focus on the lyrics and different instruments in each record.
“That was beautiful! And I love her honest, almost raw lyrics, her rich voice,” said Jan Mecham, Executive Assistant, Epic Records. “Closing my eyes made me focus on both the lyrics and the music, (and Brittany’s rich voice).”
After the immersive listening experience, Brittany performed “Lashes”, “So Fly”, “Through the Motion” and “Soft As the Sand” from her album, followed by an intimate Fireside Chat with Madilyne Nguyen-Acosta, Senior Specialist, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, where Brittany shared her experience as a disabled artist in the music industry and how Sony Music colleagues can support people with disabilities in all industries.
Image Issues is out now on Loosegroove Records, a Seattle-based label owned by Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, distributed by The Orchard. The album was produced and engineered by Davis and Josh Evans (Brandi Carlile, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam) and praised by media outlets such as NPR Tiny Desk, Seattle Times, and American Songwriter. For more info, visit her website at brittanydavismusic.net.
Sony Music Group is committed to keeping up the momentum around digital accessibility—and raise awareness of how and why physical digital spaces ought to be more inclusive. Toward that end, SMG is proud to have worked with Davis Interpeting Co. LLC to bring live ASL interpretations to this event and proud to continue our partnership with Disability:IN, the leading nonprofit resource for global business disability inclusion.
