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Submitted to Cashbox Canada

Solid Gold Records, one of the most successful independent Canadian labels in the 1980s, with multiple Gold and Platinum albums and a string of Top 10 radio hits, has been acquired by Linus Entertainment.

The Solid Gold catalog includes recordings from such legacy Canadian rock bands as Chilliwack, Headpins, and Toronto, whose songs  "My Girl Gone, Gone, Gone", "Watcha Gonna Do", "Don't It Make Ya Feel", "Turn It Loud" and “Your Daddy Don’t Know” were radio  anthems that tore up Canadian and US charts.   The deal also includes publishing for Toronto songs including "Lookin' For Trouble", "Girls Night Out" and "Enough Is Enough", that topped Canadian radio charts and established Solid Gold Records founders Steve Propas and Neill Dixon as legendary record men in Canada.

Submitted to Cashbox Canada

Major Harris, a former member of the “Philadelphia sound” soul group the Delfonics and singer of the 1975 hit “Love Won’t Let Me Wait,” has died in Richmond. He was 65. His sister, Catherine Thomas, told the Associated Press that Harris passed away Friday morning from congestive heart and lung failure after being rushed to a hospital.

The Richmond native was born Feb. 9, 1947, and grew up in a musical family. His father was a guitarist and his mother led the church choir, Thomas said. In his teens, Harris was tall for his age and was able to get into clubs to watch musicians perform, she said.

“He always appeared to be older, which gave him a lot of ins to a lot of older places,” Thomas joked. She said he didn’t drink in the clubs back then, but he was pursuing his career. Music, she said, “was his life.”

Harris made the rounds with several music groups in the 1960s, including the Charmers, Frankie Lymon’s Teenagers and Nat Turner’s Rebellion. He then joined the Delfonics in the early 1970s, replacing Randy Cain in the group.

Submitted by Reuters

Record labels say they have maintained high levels of investment in new music despite sweeping changes to their business in the digital age and a decade of falling revenues caused by sliding album sales and online piracy. According to a new study from industry body IFPI published on Monday, record companies invested $4.5 billion in A&R (artists and repertoire) and marketing in 2011.

That was down from $5 billion in 2008, partly due to a significant drop in the amount record labels were willing to spend on marketing up-and-coming talent at a time of shrinking income.But the A&R side fell less sharply to $2.7 billion last year versus $2.8 billion in 2008 despite a decline of 16 percent in the trade value of the industry globally over the same period.

Presenting the report in London, Max Hole, COO of Universal Music Group International, said he was cautiously optimistic that the music business would return to growth soon, helped by the proliferation of digital platforms."The stats are getting better, the rate of decline is slowing," he told reporters."There's every reason to hope that in the next couple of years we'll reach the low point and start to go back to growth."

According to the IFPI, in the first nine months of 2012, global recorded music sales had fallen by around one percent year-on-year after a fall of three percent in 2011.The industry peaked in 1999 when sales were $28.6 billion, but has shrunk every year since, reaching $16.6 billion in 2011.