TORONTO (CelebrityAccess) — Universal Music Canada has donated the archive of EMI Music Canada, label home to artists such as Anne Murray and The Rankin Family to the University of Toronto's Libraries and Cultural Resources, making the archive available to the public.
“The EMI Music Canada Archive is one of the most culturally significant collections of the last century to be acquired by a research library,” said Tom Hickerson, vice provost (Libraries and Cultural Resources). “The collection will be managed by the University of Calgary’s Archives and Special Collections and made accessible to students, faculty and the public.”
Established in 1949, EMI Music Canada included Capitol Records Canada and was the recording company for a range of Canadian artists, including om Cochrane, Sarah McLachlan, Nickelback, Glass Tiger, Kim Mitchell, and Helix. The company also handled Canadian distribution for international acts on EMI, including The Stones, The Beach Boys, Sinatra, Pink Floyd and others.
In addition, Universal Music Canada will provide substantial funding to support preservation and management of the archive, as well as collaborate in creating public exhibitions and educational programming with the archive.
The collection consists of 5,500 boxes containing more than 18,000 video recordings, 21,000 audio recordings and more than two million documents and photographs. The archive includes master recordings, publicity photos, demo tapes, album cover art, creative outlines for music videos, marketing plans, awards, drafts of song lyrics and correspondence between artists, producers, engineers and EMI Music Canada executives.
Due to its size, the collection will be transferred from Toronto in multiple shipments over the next few years, the University of Calgary said. – Staff Writers
