The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...

representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies,

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

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WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

and

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers (AARM) which was formed in 1956. It oversees the collection, administration and distribution of music

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

s and

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

. The association has more than 100 members, including small labels typically run by one to five people, 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.

History

In 1956, the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers (AARM) was formed by Australia's major record companies. It was replaced in the 1970s by the Australian Recording Industry Association, which was established by the six major record companies operating in Australia,

(now part of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

Festival Records Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...

, CBS (now known as Sony Music), RCA (now part of Sony Music), WEA (now known as

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

) and

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(now known as Universal). It later included smaller record companies representing independent acts/labels and has over 100 members. By 1997, the six major labels provided 90% of all recordings made in Australia. ARIA is administered by a Board of Directors comprising senior executives from record companies, both large and small.

ARIA charts

The ARIA Charts is the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling

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and

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s in various genres. All charts are compiled from data of both physical and digital sales from retailers in Australia. The first printed national top 50 chart available in record stores, branded the ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' chart, was dated the week ending 10 July 1983. ARIA began compiling its own charts in-house from the chart survey dated 13 June 1988, corresponding with the printed top 50 chart dated week ending 26 June 1988, at which time it became the official Australian chart.

ARIA certifications

Current Accreditation Levels

A music single or album qualifies for a platinum certification if it exceeds 70,000 copies shipped to retailers and a gold certification for 35,000 copies shipped. The diamond certification was created in November 2015 to mark 500,000 sales/shipments. The diamond award includes an aggregation of sales of albums plus the sales of the tracks from that album after 1 July 2014, where 10 track sales equal one album. For music DVDs (formerly videos), a gold accreditation originally represented 7,500 copies shipped, with a platinum accreditation representing 15,000 units shipped.

Former Accreditation Levels

On 1 January 1977, the Australian Record Industry Association announced major revisions in its accreditation awards system. No longer were awards based on dollar terms but rather unit sales. Gold records will be awarded to singles selling 50,000 units, EPs selling 30,000 units and albums selling 20,000 units. At the same time, the industry introduced a platinum award in recognition of the growth achievement of the Australian market. Platinum awards were issued to singles selling 100,000 and albums selling 50,000 units. Prior to 1977, awards be based on dollar terms but rather unit sales and only issued gold awards.

ARIA Awards

ARIA No. 1 Chart Awards

The ARIA No. 1 Chart Awards were established in 2002 to recognise Australian recording artists, who reached number one on the ARIA albums, singles and music DVDs charts.

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the

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industry. The event has been held annually since 1987; it encompasses the general genre-specific and popular awards known as the ARIA Awards, as well as the Fine Arts Awards and Artisan Awards (held separately from 2004), Lifetime Achievement Awards and the

ARIA Hall of Fame In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

(held separately from 2005 to 2010 but returned to the general ceremony in 2011). Australian TV

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

show ''

'' presented its own annual awards ceremony, ''Countdown'' Music and Video Awards, which was co-produced by Carolyn James (a.k.a. Carolyn Bailey) during 1981–1984 in collaboration with ARIA. ARIA provided peer voting for some awards, while ''Countdown'' provided coupons in the related ''Countdown Magazine'' for viewers to vote for populist awards. At the 1985 ''Countdown'' awards ceremony, held on 14 April 1986, fans of

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and

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scuffled during the broadcast and as a result ARIA decided to hold their own awards. Since 2 March 1987, ARIA administered its own entirely peer-voted

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

, to "recognise excellence and innovation in all genres of Australian music" with an annual ceremony. Initially included in the same awards ceremonies, it established the

in 1988 and has held separate annual ceremonies since 2005. The ARIA Hall of Fame "honours Australian musicians' achievements

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have had a significant impact in Australia or around the world".

Criticisms

Like most recording industry associations, ARIA has been criticised for fighting

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

matters aggressively, although in Australia this has largely taken the form of aggressive advertising campaigns particularly in cinemas directly preceding movies. This criticism is stauncher in Australia due to the absence of an equivalent

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...

or state crimes acts which clearly establish copyright infringement as a crime. In February 2004, the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) took legal action against Kazaa, alleging massive copyright breaches. The trial began on 29 November 2004. On 6 February 2005, the homes of two Sharman Networks executives and the offices of Sharman Networks in Australia were raided under a court order by ARIA to gather evidence for the trial. ARIA has been criticised by former ''

Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program ''Pop Idol' ...

'' judge and record producer Ian Dickson for a perceived intolerance of ''Australian Idol'' contestants, and a lack of nomination in the

ARIA Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music The music of Australia has ...

References

External links

* {{Music recording certification Australian music industry Business organisations based in Australia Communications and media organisations based in Australia Mass media companies of Australia Music industry associations Music organisations based in Australia