Articles — RIAA awards

In this article we take a close look inside every detail of RIAA "floater" awards, which were made from 1975-81. The purpose of this article is to help collectors of these awards know if a floater award they may be considering is authentic. 1975-81 RIAA "floater" award This article reveals some very detailed information about the construction of the awards from these eras that we previously did not want to put out there. Why? Because we don't want to arm those intent on making fake awards with any information that they use to create more authentic-looking fakes that could fool buyers. However, we...

Check out this list of the top 10 highest prices attained by RIAA awards in the marketplace. These pieces of music memorabilia have clearly become very popular with collectors.

In this article we take a close look inside every detail of RIAA "white matte" awards, the style of RIAA awards made exclusively by the New York Frame & Picture Co. (NYF&P Co) from 1964 to 1974/early 1975 when the RIAA mandated a design change to the "floater" style.            1964-early 1975 RIAA "white matte" award (left/top), 1975-81 "floater" award (right/bottom) The purpose of this article is to help collectors of these awards know if a white matte award they may be considering is authentic. We thought long and hard before planning this article because we don't want...

Talent-spotting television show American Idol, produced by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, has been beamed into the homes of U.S. television viewers for 20 years now. It has been so successful that it has also spawned versions in no less than 70 countries. It has also made -- or broken -- careers for many young (and a few older) artists.  Success on the show launched a major career for first season winner Kelly Clarkson, who is a two-time Grammy award winner with hits including “A Moment Like This”, "Because Of You", “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” and more. Today she also hosts her own talk show....

Record awards in their earliest days were pretty plain, starting with simple dark-stained wood framed affairs with white matte boards in the 60s and early 70s. The period of 1975 thru the mid-80s brought silver and gold painted frames and charcoal-colored mattes. This was followed by a graduation to some pretty pedestrian black plastic-covered frame/black matte awards from the mid-80s through late 90s.   Just before the millennium, however, the RIAA loosened up its' previously strict design standards. This opened up the creative floodgates for award designers, who responded with an explosion of new designs. The companies that designed these new award...