MCA Distributor Of Television Productions

MCA is also known as the Music Corporation of America. As the name suggests, its an American Corporation in the television and music businesses. MCA ran a record company, published books, booked acts and also distributed home videos and television productions.

Jules Stein in Chicago, Illinois founded MCA in 1924 as a music-booking agency.Its main job was to help pioneer modern practices of touring bands. MCA booked artists includes prominent artists like Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver. The one who rose through the ranks of MCA for more than four decades was Les Wasserman.

Other executives of MCA include Sidney Sheinberg, Lawrence R. Barnett and Ned Tanen, head of Universal Pictures. The person behind the success of hits like Animal House, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club was Ned Tanen.The one who expanded the presence of the company into television was Wasserman.

In 1958, he also purchased the Universal Studios studio lot. In 1962, MCA entered the record music business by purchasing the US Decca branch based in New York, which also included Brunswick Records and Coral Records. MCA assumed full ownership of Universal Records since Decca previously owned it and made it the top film studio in town producing hit after hit.

MCA formed Uni Records in Universal City, California in 1966 and bought New York based Kapp Records in 1967. The label MCA Records was established in 1968 outside North America. In 1971, Kapp, Uni and Decca were merged into MCA Records. The first release of MCA in the US was Elton johns Crocodile Rock in 1972.

Soundtrack albums of most of the films released by Universal Pictures were issued by MCA. The company entered the book publishing business in 1975. It acquired ABC Records, Paramount Records, Dot Records and Impulse Records in 1979. In 1985, Chess Records, Motown Records in 1988 and in 1990 GRP Records were also acquired.

The Matsushita group purchased MCA in the same year. The company acquired various other assets outside the music industry as well. In 1981, MCA became a shareholder in USA network owning approximately 50% of the total network. In 1987, it bought a TV station known as WWOR-TV in New York City but was forced to sell it in 1991 by the Federal Communications Commissions because foreign companies could not own more than 25% of a US TV station.

Seagram Company Ltd acquired 80% of MCA in 1995 and dropped the MCA name and became Universal Studios, Inc and the division of music was renamed Universal Music Group. In 2003, Geffen Records absorbed the company MCA Records.

The country music label MCA Nashville Records is still in operation. Deutsche Gramophone manages the classical music catalogue. NBC Universal now owns the non-music assets of the company, which also includes Universal Studios. Music Corporation of America