Editing MCA Records (section)

=== MCA label phaseout ===
On January 16, 2003, Jay Boberg resigned from his position as president of MCA Records.<ref name=":0" /> Boberg's resignation arrived in the wake of slumping sales at MCA, which had seen the label's overall album market share decline to just 2.61% in 2002, down from 9% the previous year.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Oppelaar |first=Justin |date=January 16, 2003 |title=MCA's Jay walking |url=https://variety.com/2003/music/markets-festivals/mca-s-jay-walking-1117878891/ |access-date=January 16, 2023 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> His demise was hastened by the relative commercial failure of [[Shaggy (musician)|Shaggy]]'s ''[[Lucky Day (album)|Lucky Day]]'', released in October 2002, which MCA hoped would sell well enough to turn around their declining fortunes.<ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine |author=Billboard Staff |date=May 20, 2003 |title=Plan Could Signal End Of MCA Brand |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/plan-could-signal-end-of-mca-brand-70994/ |access-date=January 16, 2023 |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US}}</ref> Richard Nichols, manager of [[The Roots]], felt that MCA had been attempting to spend lots of money on different projects, and subsequently many acts on MCA were "underfinanced" by the label, leading to poor sales.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Melinda |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8A0EAAAAMBAJ&dq=mca+geffen+merger+2003&pg=PA3 |title=Billboard |date=June 21, 2003 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |pages=3, 68 |language=en |chapter=MCA Braces for Merger with Geffen}}</ref> Rob Hitt of [[Midtown (band)|Midtown]] (who was signed to MCA through [[Drive-Thru Records]]) stated that MCA had lost a substantial amount of money that year from investing in several unsuccessful bands.<ref name="TNTFresh2">{{cite news |author=Friedman, David |date=December 13, 2004 |title=Fresh start |url=https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Fresh-start-91783.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423101508/https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Fresh-start-91783.php |archive-date=April 23, 2018 |access-date=April 23, 2018 |work=[[The News-Times]] |publisher=Shawn Palmer}}</ref>

Management of the label was subsequently handed over to the [[Interscope Geffen A&M Records|Interscope Geffen A&M]] umbrella label and [[Jimmy Iovine]], although UMG [[chairman]] [[Doug Morris]] promised that MCA would continue to operate as a "full-service, free standing label".<ref name=":0" /> Craig Lambert, previously the [[vice president]] of the label, was named as the interim head of MCA, with a successor expected to be chosen within a few months.<ref name=":0" /> Following Boberg's resignation, it was rumoured that MCA could possibly be merged into [[Universal Records (1995−2006)|Universal Records]], something which would have given the latter, New York City–based label a stronger presence in the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] of the United States.<ref name=":3" />

On May 20, 2003, insider sources at Universal reporting to ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' revealed that the MCA label was to be absorbed by sister UMG label [[Geffen Records]] by the end of the year. The reported reason behind the MCA brand phaseout was due to declining sales, as well as the MCA brand becoming "tarnished" by "a history of acquisitions and mergers".<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite news |author=Billboard |author-link=Billboard (magazine) |date=May 20, 2003 |title=MCA & Geffen Merger |publisher=ISM Sound Network |url=http://www.ismsound.net/index/news/id.77 |access-date=November 22, 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051226220437/http://www.ismsound.net/index/news/id.77 |archive-date=December 26, 2005}}</ref> On June 9, 2003, MCA laid off 75 of their staff, equivalent to a third of their personnel, although no employees from Geffen were let go.<ref>{{Cite magazine |author=Billboard Staff |date=June 10, 2003 |title=MCA Cuts Precede Expected Geffen Merger |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/mca-cuts-precede-expected-geffen-merger-70662/ |access-date=January 16, 2023 |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US}}</ref> Geffen's president, [[Jordan Schur]], was named president of the newly merged entity, which continued under the Geffen branding. In the subsequent months, the MCA name was phased out entirely.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bA8EAAAAMBAJ&dq=mca+geffen+merger+2003&pg=PA56 |title=Billboard |date=December 27, 2003 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |pages=YE-10 |language=en |chapter=Year In Music {{!}} Year In Business}}</ref> The last album to be released under the MCA Records branding was [[Twisted Method]]'s ''[[Escape from Cape Coma]]'', which was released on July 15, 2003.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghGxEXpetmAC&dq=twisted+method+escape+from+cape+coma&pg=PA43 |title=CMJ New Music Report |date=July 21, 2003 |publisher=CMJ Network, Inc. |language=en}}</ref>

Today, [[Interscope Capitol Labels Group]] and [[Universal Music Enterprises]] manage MCA's rock, pop, and urban back catalogues (including those from ABC Records and Famous Music Group) in conjunction with Geffen – UME and Geffen have re-released various albums from MCA in the years since, as well as several compilations. Its [[country music]] label [[MCA Records Nashville]] is still in operation, and is one of the only businesses using the MCA trademark as of 2016 along with MCA Records France (imprint of Universal Music France). MCA's [[jazz]] catalogue is managed by [[Verve Records]] (through the [[Impulse! Records|Impulse!]] and [[GRP Records|GRP]] imprints, depending on whether the recording was acquired from ABC or not), while its [[classical music]] catalogue is managed by [[Deutsche Grammophon]]. MCA's [[musical theatre]] catalogue is managed by [[Decca Records]] on its [[Decca Broadway]] imprint.

Following a lengthy two-decade hiatus, Universal Music Group rebranded its country music subsidiary company as MCA, marking the return of the Music Corporation of America to the UMG umbrella once more.