UMG Philippines
UMG Philippines Inc. (previously MCA Music, Inc.) is a Philippine regional branch of the multinational Universal Music Group. Until 2017, the company retained the MCA name on legal purposes because of a trademark dispute with an unrelated label known as Universal Records, which preempted the rights to the word "Universal" for recorded music in the Philippines. However, the company has adopted the moniker "MCA/Universal", just like the US home video unit of Universal Pictures from 1990-1997, to simplify identification, even though no formal "Universal" branding is exercised. Despite the naming, the label is known outside the  Philippines as Universal Music Philippines. History. PolyCosmic Records was formed in 1993 as a joint venture between PolyGram Music Group (Universal Music Group's predecessor, which has 30% of the company's stocks) and a consortium of local businessmen including Dr. James G. Dy (founding chairman of Dyna Products, Inc., which was the local distributor of PolyGram before) and Cosmic Records, another local company founded in 1992 by Ramon Chuaying. Universal Records - which would later be involved in the trademark dispute with this company - had the distribution rights, and Chuaying (who is now an executive at Universal) was the company 's first CEO. In 1998, PolyGram N.V. was purchased by Seagram's and was merged into MCA Inc., and PolyGram Music Group was merged with MCA Music Entertainment to become Universal Music Group. After the merger, PolyCosmic Records was reincorporated as MCA Music Inc. (Philippines). In 2006, Ricky Ilacad was named the Managing Director and is currently the CEO. MCA Music has a partnership with Smart Communications, Inc. to make music downloads available to phone users via music service Spinnr. In 2020, UMG launched Def Jam Philippines and Island Records Philippines. In 2021, UMG signed a distribution agreement with Off  the Record, a local independent label owned by former MCA Music and Warner Music Philippines executive Ricky Ilacad.