Washington, DC - Jul 1, 2010 - In June 2010, Executive Director John Simson announced to the SoundExchange board that he would leave the role he has held for the past ten years to return to his creative roots. The board has requested that he remain in his current position until a successor can be found and Simson said he would he would be pleased to assist in the transition to new leadership.

Simson, the first full-time employee of SoundExchange, was hired to launch the new collecting society in 2000. As a manager in the 1990's, Simson had assisted in the lobbying to pass the Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recording Act of 1995 and a terrestrial performance right has been a key goal all throughout his career working as an artist manager.

SoundExchange is the non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio, Internet radio, cable TV music channels and other services that stream sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board, created by Congress, has entrusted SoundExchange as the only entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties for featured recording artists and master rights owners. SoundExchange currently represents more than 5,500 record labels and more than 45,000 featured artists.