RIAA And Its Role In Music Industry

RIAA is an abbreviation of Recording Industry Association of America. This association is a conglomerate of many large companies who cater to the recoding and music distribution all over the United States of America. It is estimated that more than 90% of the music recording ompanies and distributors are part of the conglomerate called RIAA. In the days of 1950′s RIAA was primarily into the maintaining the quality of music. Today RIAA is mainly focused on into protection of copyright.

RIAA was forced to change its course mainly because people at large were illegally copying, downloading music which was actually protected by copyright. The fight for this is presently directed under the control of Mitch Bainwol. In 1990′s there was an online service for sharing music files called Napster. People took advantage of it and without any payment downloaded any kind of music with it. This free availability of music also led to downloading, burning and sharing music with friends. With development of computer technology the matter of copyrightprotection gained more and more urgency.

The only course of action left to RIAA was to ban the online music sharing services like Napster. A legal framework was made to arrest such practices as music download. Strict laws were enacted in the early 2000 to prevent people from illegal download or even purchasing pirated CD’s. Youth were specific targets of RIAA in order to restrict them from downloading music in violation of copyrights

RIAA has also taken to actively educate about its policies. It has paid specific attention to the youth population. It has conducted many seminars, forum discussions, and presentations in order to make youth aware of RIAA’s set ofrules and guidelines. To achieve this goal RIAA has approached many colleges and universities to help them in the matter. As a result universities and colleges have on their part have taken care to not only to educate their students but also making sure that no illegal music downloaded inside the university or college premises.

RIAA does not disapprove of copying a CD for one’s own use. Anybody after buying a CD legally can burn its copy. But when the burning is done for business then it is objectionable. RIAA will file lawsuits against people found making illegal copies for commercial use.

In accordance with popular wish RIAA enacted a law that for past acts of illegal downloading of music no action will be taken against people. However they must assure that they will not continue to do so in future. It was seen by many as the right approach but in a year’s time the law was depreciated.

Generally people are unsure of their feelings towards RIAA. Some are opposed to its actions and criticize it on many scores, but on the other hand there are many who welcome its efforts. In spite of a lack of consistent view about it amongst people in general it has to be accepted that in the last few years it has made remarkable progress.

Another area of activity by RIAA apart from copyright protection, is keeping track of sale of records. It also awards “Gold” or “Platinum” labels depending on the number of CDs sold. It may be summarized in the end that existence of RIAA has contributed much to keeping the business of music industry good and clean.