The Recording Artists Coalition is an organization co-founded by Don Henley. From the looks of news articles and media reports, it's something that is taking up a lot of his time lately. This page is meant to serve as a clearing house for all of the information we have about the organization.

As stated on their web page, the goals of the RAC are to:

The RAC's ongoing purpose is to form a non-partisan coalition to represent the interests of the recording artists in legislative issues where corporate and artists' interest conflict and address other public policy debates that come before the music industry.

RAC Official Web Site

The RAC has a decent start on an informative web site. You can read news articles about the organization, see which artists are involved and get some deep background on major issue points (like what exactly is a "work for hire")

Features on This Site

We've collected some of Mr. Henley's appearances here on this site. There are videos, photos and summaries of what he had to say. Some of these appearances predate the formation of RAC, but they are related and are included for that reason.

Senate Testimony on Intellectual Property -- 3/9/95
Naras Panel on Music and the Internet -- 11/10/00
Testimony before US Congress -- 4/3/01
Testimony before California Senate Committee -- 9/5/01
Testimony before US Senate Commerce Committee -- 1/30/03

Additional Information

NPR Story on RAC

Henley Explains Himself and His Organization

Article written by Don for Rolling Stone

Hilary Rosen of the RIAA sent a letter to RS in response to this article. You can read the text of her comments as well as Henley's reply to her letter.

Interview with Hits Magazine

Don gave an interview to Hits magazine about some of the issues that RAC is concerned with. You can access it on the HITS page, but if it is a problem, we've archived it here for you.

Press Conference in Sacramento

On 1/23/02, Henley and others from the Recording Artists Coalition held a press conference in support of a Senate Bill 1246.  You can read an article about the press event, watch footage from a local television station or check out the text of the actual bill.

Activities

In an effort to raise money and awareness, the RAC  held a series of concerts on February 26th in Los Angeles. Check out our photos from the show at the LA Forum.