RIAA

The Recording Institute Association of America (RIAA) is a professional organization that works with artist and record labels in the music industry. RIAA is a huge organization, they account for the creation, manufacture, and/or distribution of about 85% of all music sold in the United States. The RIAA does research on the shipment and purchasing of music, they also research the current industry trends. With this research the RIAA has develop a formula for calculating sales and labeling them. Most albums and/or artist are either rated gold, platinum, or diamond based on the number of units sold. This has became the industry standard in the United States. The RIAA also gathers information in a by watermarking, and the digital data exchange. Along with the different certifications that the RIAA gives on albums, they also try to control music by censorship. They put labels on albums that warns parents about explicit content.

The RIAA also “works to protect the intellectual property and the First Amendment rights of artist, record labels, researchers,.......” This is a big deal now of days. There is a lot of piracy(stealing music) going on and the music industry is not the power house that it used to be (it is definitely still a power house). The RIAA tries to control this by working directly with the government to develop polices and procedures to deter people from stealing music. The RIAA also work with record labels on copy writes and licensing. 

The RIAA has been a good for the music industry. They help with regulation and allow for advancement. The RIAA gathers information that is beneficial for the consumer as well as t people working in the industry. This organization is a big catalyst for developing industry standards and working with them can help any record label go from good to great.