Cary Sherman To Retire From RIAA, Mitch Glazier Promoted

Cary Sherman

Mitch Glazier has been promoted to President of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and will ascend to the role of Chairman and CEO in January 2019.

Cary Sherman, the RIAA’s Chairman and CEO, will retire from the organization at the end of 2018 after a storied 40-plus year career as one of the music industry’s most respected and knowledgeable business and policy experts.

Glazier, currently Senior Executive Vice President, will become Chairman and CEO on Jan. 1, 2019, after 18-plus years with the organization. During that time Glazier managed the organization’s public policy and industry relations teams, helping advance a variety of initiatives that helped the American music business transition to a fully digital industry with a stronger set of basic property rights protections. Before joining the RIAA, Glazier served as Chief Counsel for intellectual property to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the charity Musicians on Call, which brings the healing power of music to the bedsides of patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities across the nation.

Mitch Glazier

Since 1974 – first as outside counsel to RIAA at Arnold & Porter, and then as General Counsel, President and ultimately Chairman and CEO of RIAA – Sherman has been immersed in every legislative, regulatory and policy issue affecting the recorded music industry, from the comprehensive revision of U.S. copyright law in 1976 to the current debate about the effectiveness of laws which provide “safe harbors” for copyright infringement.

Sherman was instrumental in the enactment of the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act in 1995, which along with his work on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, established a new right for artists and labels to be compensated by digital music services. That right has since become the core legal foundation obligating streaming services to pay royalties for their subscription services – services that have become the primary catalyst for growth in the business.

Sherman also helped the music community collaborate on multiple issues, from anti-piracy and technology initiatives to litigations such as MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster in 2005. At a time when piracy was rampant and the authorized music marketplace was in its infancy, that case reshaped the legal landscape for actions against pirate sites and helped level the playing field for licensed music services.