Editing MCA Records (section)

=== Expansion and struggles ===
In 1977, MCA president [[Sidney Sheinberg]] set up the [[Infinity Records]] division, based in [[New York City]] with Ron Alexenberg as CEO. Alexenberg had been with the [[Epic Records|Epic]] division of CBS Records, now [[Sony Music Entertainment]]. The intention was to give MCA a stronger presence on the East Coast. The only big hit the Infinity label had was "[[Escape (The Piña Colada Song)]]" by [[Rupert Holmes]], a number one single at the end of 1979. Infinity also had some success with [[Hot Chocolate (band)|Hot Chocolate]], [[Spyro Gyra]], [[New England (band)|New England]] and [[TKO (band)|TKO]]. But MCA pulled the plug on Infinity after it failed to sell most of the one million advance copies of an album featuring [[Pope John Paul II]] in October 1979. Infinity was fully absorbed by the parent company in 1980.

In 1979, Bob Siner replaced Maitland as MCA Records president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCUEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22mike+maitland%22+%2B+%22mca+records%22+%2B+%22bob+siner%22&pg=PT16|title=Billboard|work=google.com|date=January 20, 1979}}</ref> Shortly afterwards, MCA acquired [[ABC Records]] along with its subsidiaries [[Paramount Records (1969)|Paramount]], [[Dunhill Records|Dunhill]], [[Impulse! Records|Impulse!]], [[Westminster Records|Westminster]], and [[Dot Records|Dot]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiUEAAAAMBAJ&q=february+%2B+1979+%2B+billboard|title=Billboard|work=google.com|date=February 10, 1979}}</ref> ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when they purchased [[Gulf+Western]]'s record labels and [[Famous Music|Famous Music Corp]]. Thus, MCA now controlled material once owned by Paramount Pictures, the music released by Paramount's record labels, and the pre-1950 films by Paramount as well.

Also included in this deal were recordings controlled by ABC, including albums by [[Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers]] which were originally released by [[Shelter Records]]. Petty was furious about the reassignment of his contract and refused to record for MCA. This led to a series of lawsuits, which resulted in his bankruptcy in 1980. Petty and other ABC/Shelter artists eventually had their contracts transferred to the [[Backstreet Records]] label, which was distributed by MCA. ABC Records' independent distributors sued ABC and MCA for $1.3 million in damages for being stuck with unsold ABC recordings they could not return to MCA.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BM58F-yOS3IC&q=abc+records+mca+distributors&pg=PA203|title=Jimmy Buffett|isbn=9780312168759|last1=Eng|first1=Steve|date=October 15, 1997|publisher=Macmillan }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISUEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22abc+records%22+%2B+losses&pg=PT15|title=Billboard|work=google.com|date=March 17, 1979}}</ref> The better selling ABC Records catalog albums were reissued on the MCA label.<ref>{{cite web|first=Dave|last=Edwards |author2=Patrice Eyries |author3=Mike Callahan|url=http://bsnpubs.com/abc/abcstory.html|title=ABC-Paramount Records Story|date=July 30, 2007|access-date=November 22, 2008}}</ref>

MCA distribution in Europe and Asia moved to [[Sony Music Entertainment|CBS]] in 1979, while releases in the 1980s were self-distributed, or through [[Warner Music Group|WEA]]. Distribution moved to [[Bertelsmann Music Group|BMG]] during the 1990s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}