Celebrating 50 years of great Canadian music.
Our Mission – As a full-service label, Royalty combines its distribution expertise with marketing, promotion, licensing, manufacturing, publishing, and music rights administration services, provided by a qualified group of music-minded people.To transform aid and philanthropy to accelerate community-led change.
Our Story – Because of his belief in Western Canadian Country music, in March 1974 R. Harlan Smith Founded Royalty Records.
With his business associate Jack Dubasz, this Edmonton based business grew to be one of Canada’s most successful record label/distributors own and controlled 100% by Albertans or Canadians for that matter.
In 1972 Harlan founded Helping Hand Music Ltd, now known as Royalty Music Publishing Inc, the first wholly owned Canadian music publishing company from western Canada to be invited to join the Canadian Music Publishers Association. The song publishing company now holds administration or copyright ownership on a significant catalogue of music of mainly western Canada based writers.
Rob Smith joined Royalty in 1993 as then sales and marketing manager for Royalty’s distribution company. Expanding to hundreds of titles throughout the 90’s to become a full-service, nationally recognized record label and distributor for both Canadian and international recording artists and labels.
Rob took over as CEO in 2006 and Over the last 20 years Royalty has represented artists such as Gord Bamford, Lisa Brokop, Aaron Pritchett, Hey Romeo, Tenille (Townes), Chris Buck, and Duane Steele
Since its creation, the label has mainly focused on country music, currently representing Canadian artists like Hillside Outlaws, The Goddamsels, Mike Plume and Orchard Sky while continuing to also represent the recordings of Canadian legends such as Bev Munro, Jimmy Arthur Ordge, Joyce Smith, R. Harlan Smith, Chris Nielsen and George Fox.
The Royalty Records catalog also includes a variety of other genres of music, including one of the biggest dance recordings of all time, “The Bird Dance” as performed by the internationally acclaimed group, The Emeralds. With even more old-time dance and polka music from polka icons Frankie Yankovic / Walter Ostanek, Brian Sklar’s Western Senators, and Gaby Haas’ catalogue, Royalty also represents jazz, big band and solo piano recordings by Canadian great Tommy Banks