The Australian Recording Industry Association

Introduction

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a national industry association representing major and independent record producers, manufacturers and distributors.
ARIA has more than 100 members ranging from small ’boutique’ record labels typically run by 1-5 people, to medium size organisations and very large companies with international affiliates.
ARIA is administered by a Board of Directors comprising senior executives from record companies, both large and small.

What does ARIA do?

ARIA is active in many key areas of the music industry:

• We act as an advocate for the industry, both domestically and internationally
• We support Australian music, and create opportunities to help it be heard
• We play an active role in protecting copyright and the fight against music piracy
• We collect statistical information from members and retailers and compile numerous ARIA charts with data provided by over 1,100 retailers
• ARIA is a focus for industry opinion and compiler of industry information and views
• ARIA provides in certain cases, a reproduction licensing function on behalf of its members for various copyright users
• We stage the highly prestigious annual ARIA Music Awards
• In conjunction with the Australian Music Retailers Association, (AMRA), we support the voluntary Recorded Music Labelling Code of Practice
• ARIA is the Australian International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) national agency, and allocates the Country and First Owner Codes to members for encoding on all audio and audio-visual recordings, as a method of identification
• We also help those in the industry who have fallen on hard times, through our support of Support Act Limited, the industry’s benevolent fund.

Our primary objective is to advance the interests of the Australian record industry by ensuring ARIA is a cohesive, effective and respected organisation.
With the continued support and membership of local record companies, ARIA’s success is guaranteed. We harness the talents of key industry people to achieve the best outcome on industry issues and challenges.
The ARIA website has a statistics section, showing sales based on the data submissions of six wholesale members. It shows sales by value and unit for the past 10 years, currently 1997-2006. Annual statistics are updated in March following each calendar year.

Author

Contributed by ARIA. Last updated 3 December 2007.