RIAA AT 70: CELEBRATING EVOLUTION

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), now celebrating its 70th anniversary, has witnessed the evolution of the modern biz. For starters, consider the changes in the formats for consumption; from LPs and cassettes to CDs, downloads and streams, there's been radical change in the way music is delivered to our earholes. Add to that an increasingly complicated economic landscape for music and a data revolution.

Currently headed by CEO/Chairman Mitch Glazier and COO Michele Ballantyne, the RIAA has nonetheless managed to maintain its singular focus amid the changes. Says Glazier, "Our primary mission will always be to unite the music community to fight together so that everyone who gives their all to creating music has the rights they need to succeed in the future and to make sure those rights are enforced meaningfully."

Of course, the shifting tides of music consumption have required the biz to stay nimble. "No industry has reinvented itself as many times or as successfully as music," Ballantyne affirms. "Today, artists have more choices and options than ever—from a huge array of DIY services and tools to indie- and major-label deals that are more flexible and individualized than ever before. And the ways listeners discover and consume music have been completely revolutionized. As creative approaches and technologies have changed, labels have led the way, pushing forward partnerships with streaming services and facilitating a gusher of licensed apps and products. The result is a thriving, burgeoning music community that's more diverse and vibrant and offers artists long-term options."

In 2013, as streaming gained steam, the RIAA reformulated how it determines which singles and albums receive certifications.

"The way music listening is tracked has substantially changed in a relatively short period of time," Glazier explains. "Whereas the focus used to be on unit sales, whether in the form of a physical shipment or a digital purchase, now we measure listening as well as purchases. The result is incredible new insight into fans’ choices and a deeper window into the lasting value of music over time. The changes we made to our gold-and-platinum program is a great illustration of this transformation. Since streaming is a very different kind of transaction, we had to find a way to integrate the old and the new. The current ratios of 150 on-demand streams to the purchase of one single and 1,500 to one album were developed to recognize the importance of streams while maintaining the exclusivity that comes with certifying only the most successful music."

The RIAA has also changed how it approaches the illegal file-sharing that exploded in the early aughts. Over the last 15 to 20 years, the organization has emerged as a copyright caretaker for creatives across the globe.

"We've focused sharply on leading legislative and policy efforts that help the entire music ecosystem—artists, songwriters, producers, services and labels," says Ballantyne. "We've brought forward the tough, pioneering cases to protect music creators on new platforms, and we've stayed ahead of the curve to make sure creators’ rights are front and center in policy circles. We worked hard—and successfully—to move the needle on public perception about online piracy, which was once dismissed as fun and harmless but is now widely understood as a real threat to artists and legitimate streaming services. The result is a music community aligned with unprecedented trust, respect and commitment on shared goals. And we will keep working to advance innovations, from TikTok to NFTs, in ways that respect creators’ rights."

Today Glazier and Ballantyne are celebrating—and the RIAA is supporting with all of its resources—an innovation of the previous century. In 1930 RCA Victor launched the first commercial vinyl long-playing record. The advent of digital formats in the last few decades seemed to consign the turntable format to the scrapheap. But the LP came roaring back. Last year, sales of vinyl were up 61%. They recently crossed the $1b mark in annual revenues for the first time since 1986. In a sense, vinyl's new vigor is perfectly timed for this anniversary of the org that began, and continues, as its champion.

At 70, the RIAA can furnish experts from its Public Policy & Industry Relations, Law & Regulation, Content Protection & Enforcement and Communications & Research departments to meet the changes and challenges that lie ahead, dedicated, as Glazier concludes, "to moving the music industry forward and determined as ever to fight for creators."

Photo credit: Othello Banaci