News

WASHINGTON D.C. – Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman & CEO Cary Sherman today requested that the United States House of Representatives lift its reported block on music streaming service Spotify for users of the House network. In a brief letter to Dan Strodel, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer, Sherman said Spotify is a “licensed, secure online music streaming service” while pointing the Office to www.whymusicmatters.com, a digital guide to authorized services developed by RIAA with music business association NARM and online retailer partners.

Below is the text of the letter.

**

Daniel J. Strodel

Chief Administrative Officer

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC  20515

Dear Mr. Strodel:

We learned today from media reports that the music service Spotify has been blocked from access by users of the U.S. House of Representatives’ network.  We certainly can appreciate and understand why the policy was implemented that prevents access to unauthorized peer-to-peer services for security reasons as well as to prevent use of the House network for illegal activity.

Spotify is a licensed, secure online music streaming service.  In fact, it is one of the dozens of authorized digital services that the music community is partnering with to offer a catalogue of millions of songs to fans, however they want it, whenever they want it – including members of Congress and their aides.  Additional details about Spotify and these other services can be found at www.whymusicmatters.com, a comprehensive one-stop shopping guide of authorized music services that we developed with music business association NARM and our online retailer partners.  These services are safe and secure, and assuring access to them not only respects the contractual relationship users may have with these services, but also achieves an important public policy goal of promoting legal, safe digital providers.

We appreciate your need to ensure that the House network is secure, and we would welcome the opportunity to work with you to develop a new policy that ensures that users of the House network will be able to gain access to these new legal services.

All members of the music community who create, invest in, promote, market and distribute music appreciate your efforts to fix this problem.  Please let us know if we can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Cary Sherman

Chairman and CEO

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)