Former Pandora & Sirius Executive Chris Harrison Named CEO of the Digital Media Association

Former Pandora and Sirius royalty rate lawyer Chris Harrison has been named CEO of the Digital Media Association (DiMA) — a trade body that lobbies on behalf of companies including Google, Amazon, Apple, Pandora and Spotify.

Harrison left his position as Pandora’s VP of Business Affairs and Assistant Counsel in 2015, where he was at the sharp end of the streaming service’s attempts to drive down the revenue share paid to record labels, artists, music publishers and songwriters.

Harrison then joined Sirius XM as VP of Music Business Affairs.

News of Harrison’s hire comes from Washington, where the National Music Publisher’s Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International are battling for better mechanical royalty rates for interactive streaming.

Nearly 10,000 songwriters have signed a petition supporting their efforts.

Harrison has joined DiMA to oversee the organization’s public policy initiatives and strategic direction, serving as a “central figure in the continued growth of the digital media economy”.

DiMA represents the legal and policy interests of online distributors of digital music, movies and books, and its members also include Microsoft and Napster.

The organisation aims to help its members develop “new and innovative ways to provide consumers with increased access to legitimate online content” by “representing the industry in a wide variety of legal, political and regulatory matters”.

Harrison said:

“I’m honored to have been chosen to lead DiMA into the future and am thrilled to work with such an impressive membership.