Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America or RIAA is an organization that was created and paid for by large record companies. It is based in Washington, D.C. It symbolizes the entire recording industry of the United States of America. The RIAA also participates in the collection, management and distribution of music licenses and royalties.
The association is responsible for certifying gold and platinum albums and singles in the U.S. Its goals are:[1]
- to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists;
- to perform research about the music industry;
- to watch over and review laws, regulations and rules that apply to the music industry.
Members
The members of the RIAA are mostly record companies in the U.S.
History
The RIAA was created in 1952 to create technical standards for vinyl records so any record could play on any record player without difficulty. In today's times, the RIAA's goals is to prevent piracy of records. The RIAA says that the music industry loses nearly 4.2 billion U.S. dollars a year because of this.
