I’M IN — The Inclusive Music Index

I’M IN is a structured equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme designed with and for organisations working in and with music. It combines digital Self-Assessment on our I’M IN platform with one-to-one support from an experienced EDI specialist – your I’M IN Advisor – across a 24-month subscription.

Most organisations care about EDI and want everyone who works with them to belong and thrive. Knowing where to start, what to prioritise and how to keep going is the harder part. The usual result is a scatter of separate initiatives, or an action plan gathering dust.

I’M IN replaces that with a sequence: assess, discuss, prioritise, act, review. Your I’M IN Advisor stays with you across all five stages, to help your team interpret what it discovers and turn discussion into a plan it can follow.

By the way – when we say "EDI" we mean every protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 – age, disability, faith, sexual orientation and more, not only ethnicity and gender. And we mean more than including people: we mean people feeling that they belong.

I’M IN is built for organisations of all shapes and sizes across the music sector – from music education services and hubs to orchestras, venues, and festivals, as well as music charities, conservatoires and colleges, publishers, independent businesses, and industry bodies.

Whether your organisation has five employees or five hundred, I’M IN provides a flexible framework that can be adapted to your context and ambitions.

1. Register your interest – we’ll let you know as soon as registration opens in September, and keep you posted in the meantime.
2. Sign up – tell us a few details about your organisation and pay by card or request an invoice. Card payment confirms instantly; invoices are raised within three working days.
3. Choose your Advisor and allocate your I’M IN Coordinator – once payment is confirmed, you’ll pick the Advisor you’d like to work with and book a 30-minute Intro Call to set up your approach. You’ll also appoint an I’M IN Coordinator from your team to oversee the process.
4. Complete your Self-Assessment – fifty questions across six dimensions, worked through with your discussion group that spans your organisation (usually four to twelve people), typically six sessions over two to three months.
5. Debrief and prioritise – a 30–45 minute Debrief Call with your Advisor, then a two-hour Priorities & Action Workshop they facilitate for your whole group.
6. Receive your Report Pack – a bespoke written report from your Advisor, built on the action plan you created together, with a progress tracker to work from.
7. Act, track and review – return to the platform to update responses and upload evidence as things change, with a Progress Check-In with your Advisor around six months after your report lands.

• Built by Music Masters with expert input from across the sector, I’M IN understands the specific real-world realities, structures, and challenges of music organisations.
• Move beyond broad statements about inclusion to develop a clearer understanding of your current EDI practice across the organisation and co-create a practical, step-by-step roadmap for change.
• Bring your staff, leadership, board, and community into honest, constructive conversations about where you are and where you’re going.
• Build confidence that your organisation is making meaningful, measurable progress over time.
• No quick fixes, rigid scoring or comparison with other organisations – just a safe, supportive, manageable and realistic approach tailored to your organisation’s context.

If you knew I’M IN as a free self-analysis tool with an optional supported route, this is a different programme. There is now one route rather than two, and every subscription includes a named Advisor and four structured sessions – support that used to sit only in the Supported Route. Survey links have been replaced by a platform designed to be returned to rather than completed once, and the whole thing now runs across 24 months rather than ending when the assessment does.

What’s different:

• The Independent and Supported Routes have been replaced by a single subscription, so every organisation now works with an Advisor rather than only those who opted into the supported tier.
• Your Self-Assessment, resources, evidence and progress now live in one place instead of being spread across documents and email.
• Your responses stay live for the full 24 months. You can update them as your practice changes, and your answer history shows the development rather than asking you to describe it.
• The new Self-Assessment comprises fifty questions across six dimensions, rebuilt from what previous cohorts told us about where the old version dragged.
• The 1–5 scale has been replaced by a Maturity Matrix. Each question maps to one of four named levels, and each completed dimension equates to a level rather than a number – so the result describes your practice rather than scoring it.
• Advisor support has increased, with more time spent supporting your team.
• The platform includes updated guidance, resources and tools, informed by learning from previous cohorts.

Whether you’re returning or joining for the first time, the new I’M IN is built to make organisational change more achievable.