MCA Inc. in the context of Seagram

LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United States in 1978 under the name DiscoVision, a brand used by MCA. As Pioneer took a greater role in its development and promotion, the format was rebranded LaserVision. While the LaserDisc brand originally referred specifically to Pioneer's line of players, the term gradually came to be used generically to refer to the format as a whole, making it a genericized trademark. The discs typically have a diameter of 300 millimeters (11.8 in), similar in size to the 12-inch (305 mm) phonograph record. Unlike most later optical disc formats, LaserDisc is not fully digital; it stores an analog video signal.

Many titles featured CD-quality digital audio, and LaserDisc was the first home video format to support surround sound. Its 425 to 440 horizontal lines of resolution was nearly double that of competing consumer videotape formats, VHS and Betamax, and approaching the resolution later achieved by DVDs. Despite these advantages, the format failed to achieve widespread adoption in North America or Europe, primarily due to the high cost of players and their inability to record.

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which became an independent company just before the Second World War. The American spin-off became a subsidiary of MCA Inc. in 1962. Known for its technical innovations, the British parent company grew to become the second most successful recording company in Britain and celebrated fifty years of existence in 1979, shortly before being sold to PolyGram. Both Decca and its former subsidiary were subsequently acquired by Universal Music.

Decca and its American spin-off both built up strong catalogues of popular music. In their first two decades, their artists included Gertrude Lawrence, George Formby, Jack Hylton and Vera Lynn in Britain and Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, the Andrews Sisters and the Mills Brothers in the US. Later performers in their popular catalogues included in the US Bill Haley & His Comets and Buddy Holly plus in the UK Elvis Presley (licensed from RCA Records), Tommy Steele, Lonnie Donegan, Chuck Berry (licensed from Chess Records), Johnny Cash (licensed from Sun Records), Eddie Cochran (licensed from Liberty Records), and the Rolling Stones.

Music Corporation of America, formerly known as Universal Music Group Nashville, is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. It was officially opened in 1945 as Decca Records' country music division (now MCA Nashville). Capitol Records opened its Nashville office in 1950 and Mercury Nashville was founded in 1957. Some of the labels in this group include MCA Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville Records, Capitol Records Nashville and EMI Records Nashville. UMG Nashville not only handles these imprints, but also manages the country music catalogues of record labels Universal Music and predecessor companies acquired over the years including ABC Records, Decca Records, Dot Records, DreamWorks Records, Kapp Records, MGM Records and Polydor Records.

On April 25, 2025, Universal Music Group Nashville was officially renamed as the Music Corporation of America (MCA), which marked the return of the name previously used by UMG's predecessor parent company MCA Inc. from 1924 to 1996 and its subsidiary MCA Records as well as Universal Pictures's predecessor parent company MCA Inc. from 1962 to 1996 and its Revue Studios/Universal Television division.

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Inc. (UFEG), doing business as Universal Studios (formerly known as Universal Studios Inc.), is an American entertainment company and business unit within NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, that oversees and manages its film and television businesses, including its flagship division, Universal Pictures.

The company was formed in 1996 following the acquisition of MCA by Seagram, and its subsequent rebranding to Universal Studios Inc., which would later take on its current name in 2013. Since its formation, the company became a major force in the film and entertainment industries.

PolyGram N.V. was a multinational major music record label and entertainment company formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a holding for their record companies, and was renamed "PolyGram" in 1972. The name was chosen to reflect the Siemens interest Polydor Records and the Philips interest Phonogram Records. The company traced its origins through Deutsche Grammophon back to the inventor of the flat disc gramophone, Emil Berliner.

Later on, PolyGram expanded into the largest global entertainment company, creating film and television divisions. In May 1998, it was sold to the alcoholic distiller Seagram which owned film, television and music company Universal Studios. PolyGram's music operations were thereby folded into Universal Music Group, and its film and television operations were folded into Universal Pictures, which had been both Seagram successors of MCA Inc. When the newly formed entertainment division of Seagram faced financial difficulties, it was sold to Vivendi, and MCA became known as Universal Studios, as Seagram ceased to exist. Vivendi remains the majority owner of the Universal Music Group (while the film and television division was sold to NBCUniversal) until 2021. In February 2017, UMG revived the company under the name of PolyGram Entertainment, which currently serves as their film and television division.

Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Music Group and Interscope Communications, it differed from most record labels by letting A&R staff control decisions and allowing artists and producers full creative control. Interscope's first hit records arrived in under a year, and it achieved profitability in 1993. Chair and CEO until May 2014, Iovine was succeeded by John Janick.

In 1992, Interscope acquired the exclusive rights to market and distribute releases from hardcore hip hop label Death Row Records, a decision that ultimately put the label at the center of the mid-1990s gangsta rap controversy. As a result, Time Warner, then the parent of Warner Music Group, severed ties with Interscope by selling its 50 percent stake back to Field and Iovine for $115 million in 1995. In 1996, 50% of the label was acquired for a reported $200 million by MCA Inc., later known as Universal Music Group.