Rounder Records Acquired By LA's Concord Music

Rounder Records-- a Massachusetts-based independent record label known for its bluegrass, Americana and folk artists-- has been acquired by the Concord Music Group in Los Angeles.

The Concord Music Group is one of the largest independent record and music publishing companies in the world.

Starbucks partnered with Concord to create the Hear Music label that's responsible for producing and selling the CDs sold in the coffee chain's shops.

Concord is about four times the size of Rounder Records, according to Rounder co-founder Marian Leighton Levy.

She said the deal has been in the air for about four years. The two independent music companies hammered out the details over the past 18 months.

While Concord is based on the West Coast, Leighton Levy affirmed that Rounder's operations will continue to operate out of its offices in Burlington.

"It's not a consolidation," she explained, "it's not a merger, they want us to continue as an independent company under their umbrella, just as they own several other companies."

Some of those companies include Telarc, Stax, and Concord Jazz, with titles from artists such as Ray Charles, Creedance Clearwater Revival and Oscar Peterson.

Leighton Levy said she and her two partners at Rounder reached out to the artists on their roster, and were met with enthusiasm for the record label's future stability and growth.

Rounder's catalog includes bluegrass maven Alison Krauss, American legend Willie Nelson and singer-songerwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The company's overall collection brims with more than 3,000 masters. Rounder was founded in Cambridge in 1970, and celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year.