Fania Records Sold to New Owners

Fania Records is synonymous with salsa music. Founded by Johnny Pacheco in 1964, the label is responsible for launching the careers of superstars like Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto and many others, and for creating a rich catalog of music containing more than 1,300 records that have been sold and resold in the last couple of years.

Emusica purchased the catalog in 2005 for about $10 million and reissued and remastered titles that had long been out of print in an (mainly unsuccessful) effort to attract new fans to classic salsa. And now, New York investment firm Signal-Equity has bought all of Fania’s recorded works and compositions from Emusica.  

What can we expect? There isn’t much information right now, but we can hope for a full revival of this important collection of music, which still has a lot to give—much like Johnny Pacheco, who recently celebrated his 74th birthday with a performance at New York’s Town Hall.