Executive Bios

Mitch Glazier
Senior Executive Vice President
Recording Industry Association of America

Mitch Glazier is Senior Executive Vice President, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).  RIAA is the music trade association whose member companies are responsible for creating, manufacturing, or distributing approximately 85 percent of all legitimate music sold in the United States.  He serves as the principal officer under the Chairman and CEO, Cary Sherman.  In that role, Glazier guides the industry’s strategic policy initiatives and helps coordinate the activities of the association. 

In his more than 10-year tenure at the RIAA, Glazier has helped manage a variety of initiatives that have played a vital role in the music industry’s transition to the digital age.  This includes, for example, the 2008 PRO-IP Act which established the country’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in the Executive Office of the President and the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 that provided colleges and universities with meaningful tools to reduce the illegal downloading of copyrighted works on college campuses. 

Glazier has also been instrumental in managing a variety of state initiatives that have helped the legal online marketplace for music begin to prosper, including the enactment of laws in several states that ensure copyright protections extend to digital storage devices and subscription services.  He has spearheaded the promotion and expansion of artist and industry programs such as updating the RIAA’s popular Gold & Platinum Program to reflect legal download and mobile sales and RIAA’s sponsorship of a weekly “Monday Open Mic” night at Nashville’s iconic Bluebird Café to showcase emerging artists and songwriters.

Before joining RIAA, Glazier served as Chief Counsel for intellectual property to the influential Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he helped draft and steer into law a series of copyright reforms including the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act, among other key intellectual property laws.

A native of Illinois, Glazier served as law clerk to the Honorable Judge Wayne R. Andersen, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and practiced law at the Chicago firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg as an associate in commercial litigation.  He graduated from Northwestern University and Vanderbilt Law School.  Glazier serves on the boards of Musicians on Call, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and the Internet Education Foundation.

   Steven M. Marks
Chief, Digital Business and General Counsel
Recording Industry Association of America

Steven Marks is Chief, Digital Business and General Counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).  Marks oversees industry-wide digital business initiatives focusing on growing the digital music marketplace and developing new revenue streams for the industry  Marks is responsible for the organization’s business affairs, legal, litigation and technology departments.

For most of the last fifteen years, Marks has spearheaded a variety of initiatives to help the music industry migrate to the digital market.  As lead negotiator to help establish streamlined industry-wide licenses, Marks led the creation of the license for Internet radio and other services now administered by SoundExchange.  Marks serves as Chair of SoundExchange’s Licensing Committee and on its Board of Directors.  Marks has also led efforts to establish historic agreements with music publishers, songwriters, digital music services, and mobile phone companies that set new royalty rates for cutting-edge digital music models to expand consumer access to legitimate music.

Marks was instrumental in launching Music Matters, a first of its kind online guide for authorized music services in the United States.  Marks also helped lead negotiations that resulted in the groundbreaking agreement with IPSs to create the Center for Copyright Information, a platform to educate consumers about online uses of music and movies.  Marks has served as Vice Chair of CCI since its creation.

Marks represents the industry in many legislative and regulatory proceedings; regularly represents the industry in public dialogues and policy debates, including providing testimony before government bodies; and helps develop strategy for industry-wide projects at the intersection of business, policy, legal and public relations aspects of the music industry.

Marks was chosen by Inside Counsel magazine as one of the Top 50 General Counsels in the United States, and is a frequent speaker on licensing, technical and legal matters at industry conferences and events.  He guest lectures on business and copyright music issues at Duke Law School.

Before joining RIAA, Marks was in private practice.  He graduated from Duke Law School where he was Articles Editor of the Duke Law Journal.  He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit.  Marks received his B.A. from Duke University.  Marks is an amateur musician and serves on the boards of Debbie’s Dream Foundation and the regional board of the Anti-Defamation League.