Warner Music Canada Ltd.

Warner Music Canada Ltd.

Warner Music Canada Ltd (successively, 1967-90, Warner Reprise Canada Ltd, Kinney Music of Canada Ltd, WEA Music of Canada Ltd). Established in 1967 as Warner Reprise Canada Ltd by the US company Warner Brothers (later, Time-Warner) to market and manufacture in Canada its subsidiary labels Warner, Reprise, Atlantic, Elektra, etc. It was known as WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) Music of Canada by 1972, and in 1990 became Warner Music Canada Ltd, a subsidiary of the US-based Warner Music International.

The head office for Warner Music Canada is located in Toronto (Scarborough) with branch offices in other cities including Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver. The company's founding president, Kenneth N. Middleton, was succeeded in 1983 by Stanley S. Kulin, in 1998 by Garry Newman, and in 2004 by Steve Kane. Warner Music Group was purchased in 2004 by Edgar Bronfman.

The parent company has owned or distributed several important labels, including, Asylum, Atco, Cotillion, Geffen, Nonesuch, Sire, and Teldec; its composite international roster (including the Warner, Atlantic and Reprise lines) has included the Canadian bands Billy Talent, Rush, and Simple Plan, as well as the solo Canadian musicians Divine Brown, Michael Bublé, David Foster, k.d. lang, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, Alannah Myles, Sarah Slean, and Neil Young.

Warner Music Canada is an umbrella company that has distributed recordings for international labels and Canadian independent record companies such as, Justin Time Records, Northern Blues Music, Bumstead Records, and Stony Plain. Its Canadian roster has included Matthew Barber, Blue Rodeo, the Boomers, Brave Belt, Brighton Rock, 54-40, Buck 65, the Cliks, the Collectors, Fludd, George Fox, Frozen Ghost, Great Big Sea, Colin James, Harem Scarem, Honeymoon Suite, Idle Eyes, Images in Vogue, Loreena McKennitt, Tom Northcott, One to One, Peter Pringle, The Pursuit of Happiness, Spirit of the West, Glen Stace, Streetheart, Trooper, Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, and Christopher Ward.

The publishing company Warner/Chappell has a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide and is also a Warner Music subsidiary.