The Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA for short, is probably the most popular association amongst the audio industry. Even those entering the audio post field for TV/Film are often members and keep in touch with other leaders in their audio fields to collaborate, network, promote, or even meet up at events and conferences around the country. It's a fantastic way for these professionals, and even students, to share their ideas and keep up with current happenings through long distances or short. Mostly, however, the members are labels and songwriters or composers who are marketing and distributing their works and want to do it legally in order to obtain royalties instead of being ripped off by piracy. That's right, downloaders and rippers...you're not hurting the "rich artist" in most cases, it's the behind-the-scenes guy (or gal) who is trying to get the royalties earned for their creative genius! Show them you appreciate the amazing, aural masterpiece gracing your eardrums by pitching in that few 99 cents.
Music supervisors in films have to pay great detail to licensing and rights. As I previously mentioned in my past blog, The Music Supervisor, a huge part of their job is clearing the rights and budgeting. A lot of times, especially when working on a tight budget, a requested song may cost too much to clear the rights for to use in their film. When this happens, you have to substitute it for another, cheaper song in hopes it will still serve the purpose and suit the scene appropriately. If you don't clear these and pay for the rights, you could be sued for copyright infringement. Even those scenes where an actor is singing karaoke needs a certain type of sync license.
Under the News tab on the RIAA site, there is a section called, "Music Notes Blog." This blog is the RIAA's way of keeping members and site visitors up to date on recording industry happenings. This is also a good place for music editors, as well as supervisors, to read regularly. Some information gives you news on who was recently hired to what business, which is important in networking. Other information may be about new music trends, which is extremely important in the roles of these particular career-holders' tasks. Knowing what the latest trends are in music affect composition for original scores, and music selections for appealing to certain age groups in the current times.
The RIAA hosts a great site for members to market and legally protect their works. Networking with others and standing together, they fight to gain deserved royalties. The audio post-production industry constantly pays attention to this to ensure they stay out of a lawsuit and the writer gets paid. If you'd like to learn more about the RIAA, they attend a lot of audio conferences and events, but they're often costly to attend and/or require membership. Do click on their site, though. You may learn a lot about how copyright infringement truly affects the owner of the work.
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