Toronto’s Linus Entertainment has purchased historic Solid Gold Records, one of Canada most successful independent label in the 1980s, co-founded by Neill Dixon and the late Steve Propas.
The gold and platinum selling catalog of about 30 album titles includes such radio anthems as Chilliwack’s “My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)” and “Watcha Gonna Do,” Headpins’ “Don’t It Make Ya Feel” and “Turn It Loud,” and Toronto’s “Your Daddy Don’t Know.”
“Our business plan and strategy for the past decade has been to grow, not just through signing and developing new artists but also by acquiring catalogue and working through artists that are well known,” Linus Entertainment president Geoff Kulawick told Billboard.biz. “So it fits with our strategy, acquiring catalogue and working with legacy artists and niche genres.”
Dixon and Propas stopped signing acts to the label in the late 80s. Dixon went on to establish the annual music conference Canadian Music Week and Propas launched Propas Management Corporation (PMC) and revitalized the Solid Gold catalog with new partner, lawyer Ed Glinert, founder of Casablanca Media Publishing. Universal Music distributes the label in Canada and Allegro has it in the United States.
Last year, both Propas and Glinert passed away within months of each other.
“Jennifer Mitchell, who was Ed Glinert’s partner at Casablanca took over Casablanca,” says Kulawick. “They are more a music publisher than they are anything else, but they administer a few labels, Solid Gold being the biggest of them. I had known Steve and his wife Monica [Miller] for a long time and when I had inquired, after Steve had passed away, what Monica intended to do with Solid Gold, she at that time said, ‘We may be looking to sell it. I’ll come back to you when I’ve decided what I want to do.’ And she called me about three or four months ago and asked me if I was still interested in buying Solid Gold. I said, ‘Certainly,’ and then we sat down and negotiated the deal.”
Kulawick said he is unable to reveal the purchase price. “I signed confidentiality on that.”
The deal also includes the publishing for the band Toronto’s songs, including “Lookin’ For Trouble”, “Girls Night Out” and “Enough Is Enough,” which topped Canadian radio charts and helped established Solid Gold.
In a joint statement, Mitchell and Miller said in a press release, “We are pleased that the Solid Gold Records catalog is in the hands of a Canadian company that understands and appreciates the historical importance of these classic Canadian recordings and will ensure they are heard for years to come. ”
Kulawick, who acquired True North Records in 2007 and The Children’s Group in 2009, and is executive director of Independent Digital Licensing Agency (IDLA) explained how he plans to maximize the catalogue. “I look forward to revitalizing, marketing the catalogue digitally to new and emerging markets,” he said. “The catalogue was probably only to be found on iTunes, but there are a lot of great emerging digital services and genre-specific digital services and we’re going to make sure that the catalogue is well represented. We might look at re-packaging, remastering, remixing some titles and creating special packages.”
