Uni Records
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Uni Records (short for Universal City Records) was a record label owned by Music Corporation of America. The brand, which long featured a distinct UNi logo, was established in 1966 by MCA executive Ned Tanen. Notable artists on Uni included Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Foundations, Hugh Masakela, Desmond Dekker, Bill Cosby, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Dave and Ansil Collins, Fever Tree and Olivia Newton-John. In 1971 Uni was merged with two other MCA subsidiaries, Kapp Records and the American Decca Records, to form MCA Records. The Decca, Kapp and Uni labels continued to be used for new releases for a short time, but in early 1972 new releases by their former artists began appearing on the MCA Records label; before long their back catalogs had been transferred to MCA as well.
In 1988, Uni was briefly revived by MCA Records as a niche label, with an artist roster of Eric B. & Rakim, Swans, and Steve Earle. By the end of 1989 Swans had been dropped and the others had been returned to the MCA label.
Uni was also the name of MCA's music distribution network. In the wake of Seagram's purchase of MCA in 1996, Uni Distribution Corp. was renamed Universal Music & Video Distribution, Inc. In June 2001, it was renamed Universal Music & Video Distribution, Corp. It was changed again in 2006 to Universal Music Distribution.
