Nearly five years after the consequential death of George Floyd, one of several minority-supporting initiatives is approaching its anniversary, too.

Equal Access, established by marketing/artist development company mtheory in 2021, typically has two full time employees devoted to advancing the careers of under-represented constituencies among artists and managers in Nashville’s music community. That represents a hefty investment for an initiative that doesn’t generate income for a relatively small firm, but it’s become an essential, almost altruistic, piece of mtheory’s identity.

“We’re a weird company in the music industry in a lot of ways,” says CEO Cameo Carlson . “You walk in the door of any of our offices, and the first thing you’re going to see are our core values printed on the wall. So the piece that maybe isn’t altruistic is it does serve our core values.”

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