Why would he want to step into this minefield? It's not the money. The chief executive slot at the RIAA pays well -- some sources say around $1 million a year -- but Bainwol likely could have gotten more compensation for less work if he had continued consulting for big-time clients like Freddie Mac at his lobbying shop, the Bainwol Group.
"I'm really drawn by the challenge," he said. "It stretches the imagination, dealing with issues that are broad and have a societal impact."
Bainwol will take the RIAA helm from Hilary Rosen, whose name was, to say the least, vilified across the Internet because of her hard-hitting tactics against file sharing.
Will the RIAA under Bainwol take a kinder, gentler approach? Not likely, said Rosen.
"I think if they were looking to soften their image, they would be taking a different tack right now," Rosen said of her replacement.
A Blank Slate, for Now
Dinner at the Daily Grill was supposed to be an occasion to get Bainwol to talk a little bit about himself, but that's one thing he doesn't like to do.
And he's not ready to talk in detail about what the RIAA's next concrete steps will be in the file-trading controversy.
RIAA chief lobbyist Mitch Glazier and Bainwol made introductory visits on the Hill, but Bainwol is reluctant to talk too much about what the RIAA's solution will be to reconciling the music business and the Internet.
"The way I approach issues is to listen, read, talk to folks and get a broad range of thoughts, and understand them, hopefully at a level that extends beyond the superficial," he said. "Then you form
conclusions. You have instincts, but you test them."
There is one thing he can safely say at this time -- illegal file trading is plain wrong, but he is aware that it will take more than subpoenas and lawsuits to change the perception of a generation of adolescents and children for whom it's a part of their lives.
"People do intuitively understand that you just don't walk into a store and take something," he said. But Bainwol acknowledged that there's a generation of 15-year-olds out there who don't see it that way when it comes to the tantalizing variety of music available for free, easy and illegal downloading.
