The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors, which the RIAA say "create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States." RIAA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The RIAA was formed in 1952 primarily to administer the RIAA equalization curve,^{[citation needed]} a technical standard of frequency response applied to vinyl records during recording. The RIAA participates in the collective rights management of sound recording. The association is also responsible for certifying Gold and Platinum albums and singles in the USA.

The RIAA lists its goals as:

Cary Sherman has been the RIAA's chairman and CEO since 2011. Sherman joined the RIAA as its general counsel in 1997 and became president of the board of directors in 2001, serving in that position until being made chairman and CEO.

The music industry or music business sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate within the industry are: the musicians who compose and perform the music; the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music (e.g., music publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels, retail and online music stores, performance rights organizations); those that present live music performances (booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew); professionals who assist musicians with their music careers (talent managers, business managers, entertainment lawyers); those who broadcast music (satellite and broadcast radio); journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; as well as many others.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the music industry was dominated by the publishers of sheet music. By the middle of the century records had supplanted sheet music as the largest player in the music business: in the commercial world people began speaking of "the recording industry" as a loose synonym of "the music industry". Since 2000, sales of recorded music have dropped off substantially, while live music has increased in importance. Four "major corporate labels" dominate recorded music — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment,Warner Music Group and EMI Group — each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving different regions and markets. The live music industry is dominated by Live Nation, the largest promoter and music venue owner. Live Nation is a former subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, which is the largest owner of radio stations in the United States. Other important music industry companies include Creative Artists Agency (a management and booking company) and Apple Inc. (which runs the world's largest music store, the iTunes Store).

David Welch Pogue (born March 9, 1963) is an American technology writer and TV science host. He is a personal technology columnist for the New York Times, an Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, and a columnist for Scientific American. He is also the host of NOVA ScienceNow on PBS and was the host of the NOVA specials Making Stuff in 2011 and Hunting the Elements in 2012. Pogue has written or co-written seven books in the For Dummies series (including Macintosh computers, magic, opera, and classical music). In 1999, he launched his own series of computer how-to books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes over 100 titles covering a variety of Macintosh and Windows operating systems and applications. Among the dozens of books Pogue has authored is The World According to Twitter (2009), written in collaboration with around 500,000 of his Twitter followers.

Pogue was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the son of Richard Welch Pogue, an attorney and former Managing Partner at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and Patricia Ruth (née Raney). He is a grandson of aviation attorney L.Welch Pogue and Mary Ellen Edgerton. He is also a great nephew of Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and credited with transforming the stroboscope from an obscure laboratory instrument into a common device.

Cary H. Sherman is an American lawyer and lobbyist. He has been the Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) since August 2011. He served as President of the RIAA from 2001 to 2011.

Sherman graduated from Cornell University in 1968, and Harvard Law School in 1971.

Sherman worked as a senior partner at Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter for twenty six years, where he led the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group.

He is an officer of the board of the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., and has also served in advisory roles for the Anti-Defamation League, BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal, the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, The Computer Law Association, the Copyright Society, and The Computer Lawyer. He is the co-author of a 1989 two-volume work titled Computer Software Protection Law.

Sherman was hired as general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of American in 1997. Beginning in 2001, Sherman served on the Board of the RIAA as President. His work involved coordination and regulation of the industry's business, policy and legal objectives while his obligations remain primarily in technology, government affair issues, licensing and enforcement of rules and regulations. In 2009/10, Sherman's compensation package from the RIAA was $3.2 million. In 2010, Sherman helped the RIAA secure a $105 million settlement from LimeWire for copyright infringement. Sherman replaced Mitch Bainwol as CEO in August 2011.

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (pronunciation: /ˈjæŋkəvɪk/; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he has sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single ("White & Nerdy") were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.

Yankovic's success comes in part from his effective use of music video to further parody popular culture, the song's original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. He directed later videos himself and went on to direct for other artists including Ben Folds, Hanson, Black Crowes, and The Presidents of the United States of America. In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic wrote and starred in the film, UHF, and television show, The Weird Al Show. He has also made guest appearances on many television shows, in addition to starring in Al TV specials on MTV.