Singer Chloe Howl speaks about the 'dark side' of the music industry

BRIT Award nominee said a man she was supposed to be working with approached her 'in a pretty strong way' when she was starting out

A BBC programme has looked at the "dark side" of the music industry as allegations continue to shake the entertainment world.

The Victoria Derbyshire programme interviewed victims who are speaking out for the first time about their experiences of the music industry.

Singer-songwriter Chloe Howl signed to a record label when she was 16-years-old, appeared on the BBC Sound of 2014 poll and was later nominated for a BRIT Award.

She told the programme: "I did have somebody come on to me in a pretty strong way. He was a lot older than me and we were meant to be professionally working together.

"He would drop me off at my hotel, and then text me to say: 'Why didn't you invite me in?' I remember one night he grabbed my bum and said something along the lines of: 'I feel like we'd have really good times in the sack.'"

However Howl said she was "one of the lucky ones" and claimed she knew girls who had been raped: "It's always a man in power and a girl on the rise who needs as much support as possible, whose career hasn't started yet.'"

Industry figures have been warning that the sexual abuse scandal in the entertainment world extends beyond Hollywood.

In October, Sir Tom Jones said he felt "terrible" after an encounter with a figure in the music industry when he was a young artist.

"There's always that element there that people with power sometimes abuse it, but they don't all abuse it, there are good people," he said.

Singer Paloma Faith told The Sun earlier this year: "I see sexual exploitation constantly in the music industry... where women are made to feel that their main currency is their bodies by men."

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