Susan Aglukark seeks new distributor for upcoming music release

Susan Aglukark is looking for a new distributing partner for her latest project, which has pushed back the release of the lead single from her upcoming EP Disco Ball.

The song, For You, was originally scheduled to release Sept. 8.

The company that previously distributed Aglukark’s music, the Independent Digital Licensing Agency, was sold in 2023 to Round Hill Music, a subsidiary of a U.S. private equity firm. The agency’s former manager retired within the past year.

Aglukark said since then, she has been looking for a company that will help her publish her new music on online streaming platforms, like Spotify.

“The streaming side is a completely different beast because it’s a learning curve and requires time to watch the numbers, such as the number of downloads,” said Aglukark. “It made sense for us to find a partner to handle that side of things.”

As an independent artist, Aglukark and her husband, sound engineer and recording partner Jacques Poirier, have been managing the business side of her music career since 1993, through her independent record label and management company, Aglukark Entertainment.

She said that she manages all inquiries for concerts and keynote speeches, as well as her own recording time in the studio.

“It really is a challenge for us right now to find the right home for our music,” Aglukark said.

For You began as a poem titled Igvit she wrote in 2022, inspired by Indigenous communities confronting the loss of children who never returned home from residential schools.

Aglukark invited singer Sweleyén, also known as Julianne Peters, of the Tsq’éscen’ First Nation in British Columbia, to translate a verse into Secwepemctsín. 

Peters is from near Kamloops, where the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced in May 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had identified what it described as 215 potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

“It just turned into this really beautiful collaboration,” Aglukark said.

Aglukark later decided the song should be told through the voices of young people and asked choir director Mary Piercey-Lewis to help bring a youth choir into the project.

The choir recorded in Toronto, as well as in Iqaluit in March, with about 10 to 15 singers. The song also brought together singer and composer Deantha Edmunds and the Inuksuk Drum Dancers from Iqaluit.

The project received support from the Ontario Arts Council. Proceeds from For You will go to the Orange Shirt Society and Aglukark’s Arctic Rose Foundation, which supports Indigenous youth through the arts.

Aglukark said she is talks with a few distributing partners and hopes to release the song soon, with the five-song EP Disco Ball planned for early 2027.