advertisement
FYI

Higher Reign Signs With Sony Canada For Global Exploitation

The Montreal indie music entertainment firm recently struck it big with the Lucky Rose’s single "The Way You Want Me" that has reached more than 10M streams and was in the Billboard Top 40 CHR chart for 16 weeks.

Higher Reign Signs With Sony Canada For Global Exploitation

By FYI Staff

Higher Reign Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment Canada have announced a partnership to promote and develop their respective artists in Canada and globally.


Effective Dec. 14, Sony is now the exclusive worldwide distributor for the Montreal multimedia entertainment firm’s catalogue of independent artists that have amassed 30 million streams, 220,000 equivalent sales, and a combined 10 million views on YouTube in the past two years.

“HR Music is the new breed of independent labels in Canada,” says HRM CEO Steeven Leblanc.

“Having broken big tunes in the past two years–notably Lucky Rose’s single ‘The Way You Want Me’ that reached more than 10 million streams and was in the top 40 Billboard CHR chart for 16 weeks in 2016, our focuses remain mostly on Pop/Urban/Dance music,” he explains.

Continuing: “It has also helped the artistic development of many other talented singer-songwriters, like A-SHO, Treh LaMonte, and, most recently, Julia Tomlinson who will be part of the CTV show The Launch this winter.”

advertisement

Higher Reign is gearing up for 2018 with new acts like TOITO, Mark & Sylvester, Julia Tomlinson, Aiden Myers, Elissia Mariah and Kingdom Street. The company has teams based in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles, and an A&R squad that “consistently keeps track on what’s happening on the scene to stay ahead of the herd in terms of digging out and pushing great new talents,” Leblanc enthuses.

“Working with Sony Music Canada was a no-brainer from the start,” Leblanc states. “Our label is excited for what’s to come, and we think this is a step forward for our roster. Getting their talented and trusted team on board with us is a great vote of confidence for our independent label. And I’m confident that Sony Music and their worldwide network will help us achieve that.”

“We are excited to begin this new partnership with the Higher Reign team and their artists, Chris Hardy, Director Distributed Labels, Sony Music Canada said in a statement Wednesday. “They bring youth, passion, and dedication to our distributed label family and we are looking forward to working with them locally and internationally.”

advertisement

It should be noted that this new partnership does not affect Higher Reign Music’s organizational structure at this time; its governance and shareholding remain unchanged.

advertisement
Kaïa Kater
Janice Reid

Kaïa Kater

Awards

Kaïa Kater, Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens Nominated for Folk Music Awards at Montreal's Folk Alliance International 2025

Artists who will receive special honours in Montreal next February include Indigo Girls, Leslie Riddle and OKAN .

Folk Alliance International (FAI) has announced the nominees for the International Folk Music Awards, which take place on the first night of FAI’s 37th annual conference on February 19-23, 2025 in Montreal.

Canadian artists are well represented as award recipients and nominees, with Canadian-Grenadian singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Kaïa Kater leading the way. She is nominated in two prestigious categories, Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, for Strange Medicine, whcih features guest spots by Aoife O’Donovan, Taj Mahal and Allison Russell.

keep readingShow less
advertisement