UMG Philippines Inc. is a record label based in the Philippines and served as its regional branch of the multinational music corporation,

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. Formerly known as MCA Music, the record label previously retained the now-discontinued MCA name on legal purposes because of a trademark dispute with an unrelated label known as

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

, which preempted the rights to the word "Universal" for recorded music in the Philippines. However, the company adopted the

moniker A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

"MCA/Universal", much like

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

' home video unit from 1990 to 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. The record label then changed to its current name on November 3, 2021.

History

PolyCosmic Records was formed in 1993 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between PolyGram Music Group (Universal Music Group's predecessor, which has 30% of the company's stocks) and a consortium of

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

businessmen including Dr. James G. Dy (founding chairman of Dyna Products, Inc., which was the local distributor of PolyGram) and Cosmic Records, a company founded in 1992 by Ramon Chuaying.

— which would later be involved in a domestic trademark dispute with UMG — had the distribution rights to Polygram; and Chuaying was its first

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. In 1998, PolyGram N.V. was purchased by

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which trade name, traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational beverage and during the last few years of its existence, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. ...

's and was merged into

MCA Inc. MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film indus ...

, and PolyGram Music Group was merged with MCA Music Entertainment to become

. After the merger, PolyCosmic Records was reincorporated as MCA Music Inc. (Philippines). In 2006, Ricky Ilacad was named the managing director and 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 formally appointed Sindikato Management founder and former Sony Music Philippines A&R consultant Enzo Valdez as managing director, replacing Ilacad. The same year, 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 Ilacad. On November 3, 2021, after 23 years as MCA Music Inc., the record label was renamed as UMG Philippines Inc. On the same day, UMG Philippines formally launched its digital consumer-facing brand known as UMUSIC Philippines (umusic.ph). On July 8, 2022, UMG launched its third label, Republic Records Philippines. On February 5, 2024, UMG relaunched EMI Records Philippines as its fourth label after 22 years.

Artists (past and present)

UMG Philippines (formerly MCA Music)

Def Jam Philippines

Island Records Philippines

Republic Records Philippines

EMI Records Philippines

* Shane Bernabe * CHNDTR * Dionela * Cydel Gabutero *

Gracenote Gracenote, Inc. is a company and service that provides music, video, and sports metadata and automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies to entertainment services and companies worldwide. Formerly CDDB ("Compact Disc Data Base"), Gracenote ...

* Jenzen Guino * Hale * Miss Ramonne *

Elha Nympha Elha Mae Fronda Nympha (born April 16, 2004) is a Filipino singer who won the second season of '' The Voice Kids'' in 2015. She started singing at the age of 3 and started joining a school competition at the age of 7, where she won a Rotary Clu ...

* Daniel Paringit * Patrick Quiroz * Gabriel Tagadtad * Dave Trinidad * Waltz

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control Philippine record labels Universal Music Group Companies based in Mandaluyong Record labels established in 1993 1993 establishments in the Philippines Philippine companies established in 1993