In 2015, the University of Calgary in Canada began to acquire the complete corporate record – an estimated 6000 file boxes – of the EMI Music Canada, which was acquired by Universal Music Canada in 2012. The archive represents a comprehensive and uninterrupted record of making, recording and distributing music in Canada for a period of 60 years. The archive consists of extensive textual and audiovisual documentation of the cultural and business trajectory of EMI and the Canadian recording industry. EMI Canada produced Canadian artists and distributed international artists from the main EMI label and other subsidiary record labels. Due to EMI’s Canada’s previous partnership with Capitol Records, artists range from Canadians like Anne Murray and the Rankin Family to international acts that include The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, and David Bowie. More than 40 audiovisual formats are present in the more than 40,000 recordings.
Our partners in the accessioning, cataloguing, preservation, digitization and use of this collection include Universal Music Canada, Canada’s brand new National Music Centre, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. My paper will outline the development and importance of partnerships to manage the accessioning, preservation and use of this large, varied and comprehensive corporate archive. For memory institutions to provide ongoing and meaningful access to audiovisual heritage, such partnerships and new approaches to workflow and outreach are needed to ensure that such collections can be sustainably managed and preserved.
