Daily BrewHMV and EMI sales end once-crucial link between Canadian and U.K. music scenes
While the newest royal couple prepares to tour Canada, an entirely different historical connection to the U.K. has started to slip away with the sale of the 121 stores owned by troubled music retailer HMV.
And next on the auction block, after about a decade of corporate turmoil, will be 114-year-old British record company EMI.
While one brand was once a subsidiary of the other, HMV Group became independent in 2002, right around the time speculation started to circulate about EMI's sale to a more dominant international player.
Commonwealth links once helped to put both at the forefront of the Canadian music industry. Capitol Records, which launched in Canada in 1949, got a boost after it was bought by the U.K. company in 1955.
The deal helped satisfy the nostalgic demand for British music among families who moved to Canada after the Second World War. And the earliest efforts of the Beatles, which Capitol initially assumed would flop in the U.S., were enthusiastically repackaged for Canada first.
Gradually, the relationship started to benefit acts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Anne Murray, Tom Cochrane, the Rankin Family, Rita McNeil and Stompin' Tom Connors were among the names EMI successfully cultivated. Many other British acts also got their first North American break in Canada, well before their albums were released stateside.
More recently, Coldplay, Gorillaz and Kylie Minogue have gained a higher profile in Canada as a result of the connection.
So, the likely sale of EMI to a bidder based outside the U.K. would mark a symbolic end to the flow of music between the two countries.
Similarly, when HMV entered the Canadian market in 1988, it promised the expertise and enthusiasm for music associated with the industry in England.
Now, whatever is done with the remaining HMV Canada locations just purchased for $3.23 million (CDN) by restructuring expert Hilco, though, it certainly won't involve a return to wall-to-wall CD racks.
Geography might be less of a factor now that music distribution has shifted to digital.
But some popular cultural bridges between Canada and the U.K. have burned along the way.
(Reuters Photo)
