Recording Industry Association of America facts for kids

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Recording Industry Association of America

Abbreviation	RIAA
Formation	1952; 73 years ago (1952)
Type	Licensing and royalties, technical standards
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Location	United States
Chairman and CEO	Mitch Glazier

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a group that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members are record labels and companies that make and sell music. The RIAA says its members create and sell about 85% of all legal recorded music in the U.S. The RIAA's main office is in Washington, D.C..

The RIAA started in 1952. At first, its job was to handle fees for using copyrighted music. It also worked with music unions and studied how government rules affected the record industry. Early on, the RIAA helped set standards for how records were made. This included the way sound was recorded on vinyl records and the size of different record types (like 33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm records).

The RIAA says its main goals today are:

to protect the rights of artists and their creative works (called intellectual property)
to do research about the music industry
to keep an eye on laws and rules that affect music

Between 2001 and 2020, the RIAA spent millions of dollars each year on lobbying. Lobbying means trying to influence government decisions. The RIAA also helps manage the rights for sound recordings. It is also in charge of giving out special awards for gold and platinum albums and singles in the United States.

Who Runs the RIAA?
Music Awards and Certifications
Protecting Music Rights
- Advocacy and New Technologies
Leaders of the RIAA
See also

Who Runs the RIAA?

Mitch Glazier has been the RIAA's top leader, called the Chairman and CEO, since 2019. He has worked at the RIAA for over 20 years. He helped the music industry change as people started listening to music through streaming services. This made music available "anywhere, anytime."

The RIAA has a board of directors with 26 members. These members are important people from different record companies. The RIAA represents over 1,600 member companies. These companies are record labels and distributors. Together, they create and sell about 90% of the recorded music in the United States. The biggest and most important members are often called the "Big Three":

These major music groups include famous record labels like Atlantic, Capitol, RCA, Warner, Columbia, and Motown.

The RIAA reported that the total value of music sold by its members was $10.4 billion in 2007. This was less than the $14.6 billion sold in 1999. However, the money made from recorded music in the U.S. grew by 11.4% in 2016, reaching $7.7 billion.

Music Awards and Certifications

The RIAA has an award program for albums and singles that sell a lot of copies. This program started in 1958.

Originally, a Gold single meant one million copies sold.
A Gold album meant $1 million in sales.
In 1975, Gold albums also needed to sell 500,000 copies.
The Platinum award was added in 1976 for albums selling one million copies. Singles needed two million copies for Platinum.
The Multi-Platinum award started in 1984 for even higher sales.
In 1989, the sales needed for singles were lowered to 500,000 for Gold and 1,000,000 for Platinum. This was because fewer singles were being sold.
In 1992, the RIAA started counting each disc in a multi-disc set as one unit.
The Diamond award was created in 1999 for albums or singles that sold ten million units.

Because the rules have changed over time, the sales needed for an award depend on when the award was given.

Since 2000, the RIAA also has a similar program for Latin music sales. It is called Los Premios de Oro y De Platino.

A "Disco De Oro" (Gold) is given for 30,000 units sold.
A "Disco De Platino" (Platinum) is given for 60,000 units.
"Album Multi-Platino" is for 120,000 units.
"Diamante" needs 600,000 units.

The RIAA says "Latin music" means a release where 51% or more of the music is in Spanish.

Digital Music Awards

US Representative Martha Roby and singer Miranda Lambert at an RIAA event in Washington, DC, in 2019. Miranda Lambert was the RIAA's 2019 Artist of the Year.

In 2004, the RIAA started giving awards for "digital" recordings. This means music that is sent over a network, like songs bought from the iTunes Store. In 2006, "digital ringtones" were also included.

Starting in 2013, streams from music and video services like Spotify, Napster, and YouTube also started counting towards these awards. The rule is that 150 streams are equal to one download. This means that RIAA awards for singles no longer just show how many copies were sold. In the same year, the RIAA started the Latin Digital Award for Spanish digital recordings.

As of 2016, the rules for these digital awards are:

Gold: 500,000 units
Platinum: 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum: 2,000,000 units (and then 1,000,000 more for each new level)
Diamond: 10,000,000 units

Here is how units are counted:

One permanent digital download counts as 1 unit.
150 on-demand audio or video streams count as 1 unit.

Latin digital awards:

Disco de Oro (Gold): 30,000 copies
Disco de Platino (Platinum): 60,000 copies
Disco de Multi-Platino (Multi-Platinum): 120,000 copies

Album Awards

In February 2016, the RIAA updated its rules for album awards. They now combine streaming and track sales. This uses a system called "album-equivalent unit."

Gold: 500,000 units
Platinum: 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum: 2,000,000 units (and then 1,000,000 more for each new level)
Diamond: 10,000,000 units

For these awards, one unit can be:

The sale of a digital album or a physical album.
10 track downloads from the album.
1,500 on-demand audio or video streams from the album.

Video Longform Awards

Besides albums and singles, there is another type of music release called "video longform." This includes music DVDs and VHS tapes. Some live albums and compilation albums also count here. The rules for these awards are a bit different.

Gold: 50,000 copies
Platinum: 100,000 copies
Multi-Platinum: 200,000 copies

Protecting Music Rights

The RIAA works to stop people from sharing its members' music without permission. This is called copyright infringement. Studies have looked at how much money is lost when music is shared illegally.

The RIAA has taken legal action against services that allow file-sharing. They have also sued individuals who they believed were sharing files. In late 2008, the RIAA announced they would stop suing individuals. Instead, they would try to work with internet companies to use a "three-strike system." This system would give two warnings for file sharing. After a third warning, the internet service might be cut off.

The RIAA identifies people based on their internet address (IP address). Sometimes, this has led to mistakes, like sending warnings to people who were not actually sharing files.

In February 2007, the RIAA started sending letters to internet users. These letters accused them of sharing files and offered a chance to settle the issue for a lower payment. If people did not settle, lawsuits would be filed. These settlements usually cost between $3,000 and $12,000.

The RIAA also worked with colleges and universities. They asked them to share letters with students. These letters offered early settlements before the students' identities were fully known.

In 1998, the RIAA sued Diamond Multimedia over their Rio PMP300 player. This was one of the first portable MP3 players. The RIAA said it broke a law about recording music. However, the court ruled in favor of Diamond. This decision helped clear the way for portable digital music players to become popular.

In 2003, the RIAA sued college students who created programs for sharing files on local networks. The RIAA said these programs were "designed to enable widespread music thievery."

In September 2003, the RIAA sued people who shared many files using a program called Kazaa. Most of these cases were settled with payments, often around $3,000. The company that made Kazaa later agreed to pay $115 million to the RIAA and other groups. They also agreed to add filters to their network to stop users from sharing copyrighted music.

The RIAA also took legal action against XM Satellite Radio. They wanted to stop XM from letting subscribers record songs from its broadcasts. XM was later required to pay a fee to the music industry, which goes to the RIAA.

In 2007, the RIAA sued Usenet.com. This was a company that provided a service where people could share files. The RIAA said Usenet.com was helping people illegally share copyrighted music. In 2009, a judge ruled in favor of the RIAA.

In 2010, RIAA members won a case against LimeWire, another file-sharing network. After this, the RIAA's website was temporarily taken offline by people protesting the decision.

Advocacy and New Technologies

The RIAA has also been involved in legal cases about copyright laws. For example, they were part of the Allen v. Cooper case in 2020.

On October 23, 2020, the RIAA asked GitHub, a website for sharing computer code, to remove a program called youtube-dl. This program allows users to download videos from YouTube. The RIAA said it violated a law called the DMCA. Some people disagreed, saying the program could be used for good reasons, like saving videos about social issues.

In February 2022, Mitch Glazier of the RIAA quickly took action against a website called HitPiece. This site was accused of taking music without permission and turning it into NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). NFTs are unique digital items. HitPiece's website has not been updated since.

Leaders of the RIAA

Goddard Lieberson, 1964–1972 (president)
Stanley Gortikov, 1972–1987 (president)
Jay Berman, 1988–1998 (president and chair)
Hilary Rosen, 1998–2001 (president)
Mitch Bainwol, 2003–2011 (chairman and CEO)
Cary Sherman, 2011–2019 (chairman and CEO)
Mitch Glazier, 2019–present (chairman and CEO)