Neeta Ragoowansi
Neeta has served on the WIM Board since 2003 and has also served as WIM’s Legal Counsel, Vice President and Events Committee Chair. She has been extremely dedicated to the organization these past years—having put together many of its educational panels/events, advised on its legal issues, recruited new leadership for WIM, and provided other such accomplishments on behalf of the organization.
By way of background, Neeta is the Director of Artist-Label Relations for SoundExchange, a non-profit organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital performance royalties on behalf of recording artists and sound recording copyright owners (typically record labels). In her capacity at SoundExchange, Neeta is responsible for, among other things, reaching out to and educating the thousands of recording artists and record labels who are still unaware of the new performance right in the U.S. and the new stream of revenue it creates for them.
Neeta is also an attorney with a focus on entertainment law and has represented the interests of musicians, songwriters, recording artists, filmmakers, film festival organizers, record producers, club owners, production companies and music managers, among others. Prior to joining SoundExchange, Neeta served as the Assistant General Counsel for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The National Symphony Orchestra, in Washington, DC for almost nine years. She also served as General Counsel for the Songwriters Association of Washington, DC as well as Contest Director for the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competition for many years. Neeta is also an award winning musician, singer and songwriter and continues to perform with her band, The Oxymorons. She was also a co-owner of Visions, an art and foreign film/movie house in Washington, DC, as well as founder of Ecomedia, a non-profit organization created to promote environmental awareness through the arts. Neeta served on the Board of Governors of the DC Chapter of the Recording Academy/NARAS and is presently on the Membership Committee of the NYC Chapter of the Recording Academy/NARAS.
Neeta received her undergraduate degree in International Studies and Theater and Film Studies from Emory University and her law degree from American University.
Neeta has been a speaker at numerous music and film industry events around the country and abroad. She has spoken at such conferences as MIDEM, Billboard Dance Summit, CMJ, International Folk Alliance, Future of Music Policy Summit, Latin Alternative Music Conference, RockrGirl, NXNE, Billboard R&B Hip Hop Awards and Conference, Austin Film Festival, Americana, Atlantis, Canadian Music Week, Barbados Music Conference and numerous Recording Academy chapters’ “In the Mix” programs. She is also a regular lecturer for the annual Grammy in the Schools project sponsored by the Grammy Foundation.