RIAA RADAR - tell if that music CD is released by the RIAA!

November 11, 2005

This is kind of cool. Many of us out there feel that it is wrong to support the RIAA, as they have shown a complete disregard for consumers and consumers rights. There is a problem out there, but this jihad against the little guy is not going to solve it. Putting children and the elderly on the legal hotplate for "possession of copyrighted lossy files" from the Internet, just doesn't sit right with even the most calloused among us.

Yet, at the same time, a lot of us CD Freaks are music lovers and we would like to support our favorite artists, what to do? Well, with this handy, free service, you can quickly check through Amazon.com's voluminous database of music, to see if the album you want is produced by an RIAA member. This is what the RIAA RADAR site can let you know, so that you can spend your money elsewhere if you do not wish to support the RIAA organization or it's membership. That way, you can still buy some music without guilt and at the same time, punish those that are members of this controversial organization.

Why should I use it?
Just as people can currently find out where some products come from and who made them (Is this banana organic? Does this milk contain growth hormones? Were these clothes made in a sweatshop?), it is important to have that knowledge for as many consumer goods as possible. Knowledge is power, and knowing where the product came from can (and should) influence what you buy.

The RIAA is a group of several hundred record labels. The roster of members changes constantly (major labels create new subsidiary labels, popular artists are given their own labels, artists or labels leave the RIAA due to creative or political differences, etc.) and it is almost impossible to keep track. Aside from memorizing the entire list, or having the list available and checking it while shopping, it is hard to know who is a member and who is not.

Why is it important to know if an album was released by an RIAA member or not?
That's possibly a fairly long answer, but just the highlights of the RIAA's practices involve price-fixing, blaming its poor financial state on unfounded digital piracy claims (and in turn, blaming and suing its own consumers), lobbying for changes that hinder technological innovation and change copyright laws, underpaying the artists it represents, invading personal privacy to enforce copyrights, and dismantling entire computer networks just because of their ability (of their users) to share copyrighted files. (Feel free to visit the RIAA and Boycott-RIAA.com to learn more!)

In order to successfully and efficiently support who you like (or not support who you don't like), you need to have information immediately available to know who is who. The RIAA Radar works in two ways: if you're looking to stop buying RIAA releases, it will help tell you what albums to avoid (or purchase secondhand); if you are looking for new music or new alternatives, it works to promote non-RIAA releases by providing similar RIAA-free albums to almost any RIAA release, and RIAA-free popularity charts for several genres in order to showcase viable alternatives.

How does it work?
When you run the RIAA Radar, it uses Amazon Web Services to get the album information. It then checks the record label data given by Amazon against a local database based on the official list of RIAA members (but heavily added to beyond that), and returns the result based on a match.

What if the RIAA Radar result is incorrect?
Since the album data is not ours, and the RIAA member listings are terribly inaccurate and erroneous, it is possible that the Radar may return incorrect results. We do not claim that the data or the Radar results to be 100% correct, but we use a lot of user information and double-checking to make sure the application is as accurate as it can be by itself. The application should be used to help your purchasing research, not be it.

The RIAA Radar does not hold or own any of the album data, so we cannot change any of it except the result that comes up based on the record label given by Amazon. If you see a Radar result that you think is incorrect, there is a link next to every result which you can submit an item for review.

Like they say, it isn't 100% foolproof, but what is? At
least there is a good chance if it is listed as "safe" the RIAA has not been
involved in the production. These type things are a great way to make the
marketplace even more effective in applying pressure where it is needed. Here is
a link if you would like to
see what the site has to offer.

Source: RIAA Radar