Round Hill Music LP (“Round Hill” or the “Company”), the integrated music company founded in 2010 that manages songs with a value of circa $1.2 billion, announces that it has acquired Linus Entertainment, the Canadian independent music company whose repertoire includes the music recording and publishing catalogs of Borealis Records, Mummy Dust Music Ltd, Solid Gold Records, Stony Plain Records, The Children’s Group and True North Records, as well as the distribution company Independent Digital Licensing Agency Inc (IDLA). The investment includes a catalogue of over 3,000 songs and 20,000 master recordings.
Linus Entertainment was established in 2000 by former Virgin Records A&R director and Warner Chappell Publishing Creative Director, Geoff Kulawick, and includes the exclusive rights to numerous popular rock, blues, folk, jazz and global artists’ recordings.
These include recordings from Big Wreck, the Canadian-American Rock band whose 1997 debut album reached double platinum certification; Canadian singer songwriter and Canadian Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Cockburn; Buffy Sainte-Marie, the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award winner whose songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker; Blues Rock singer songwriter Colin James, who has had several international hit singles and whose 2016 album Blue Highways spent 10 weeks at number one on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart; Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Gordon Lightfoot; Natalie MacMaster, the multi-time winner of Artist of the Year at the Canadian Music Awards who has had three albums reach gold certification in Canada and who has toured with Carlos Santana, the Chieftains and Faith Hill; American Blues guitarist, Ronnie Earl whose band, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, has released 26 albums over 40 years; folk musician and singer songwriter, Stan Rogers, who was a pioneer of Canada’s independent music scene; and triple Grammy award winning Blues musician Taj Mahal.
The acquisition, undertaken on behalf of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund III LP, continues the Company’s focus on recorded music investments. Earlier this year, Round Hill made several frontline investments in new recordings by artists such as The Record Company, Neon Trees, Candlebox, and Better Than Ezra which are due for release this year on Round Hill Records and Black Hill Records.
Josh Gruss, CEO at Round Hill Music LP said: “This investment includes some of the most celebrated music and performers to come out of Canada and supports our strategy of investing in and supporting the growth of iconic music. The opportunity Linus Entertainment presented to us was truly a one off and we are very excited to have these incredible Canadian artists included in the Round Hill stable.”
Geoff Kulawick, Founder of Linus Entertainment said: “Having built Linus Entertainment up over the past two decades, now is the right time for us to hand the reins over to a partner that we know will oversee it with passion and care. Round Hill has a strong reputation with an excellent team and we are confident that the business and, importantly, the music, is in good hands from here.”
Linus Entertainment was advised by Birchmount Capital Partners Inc, Sheppard Brown and Stikeman Elliott while Selverne Bradford PLLC acted on behalf of Round Hill Music.
