Decca Records

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Decca Records
Parent company	Universal Music Group (UMG)
Founded	1929; 95 years ago (1929)
Founder	Edward Lewis
Distributor(s)	Decca Music Group (UK) Verve Label Group (US) Universal Music Group (International)
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Location	Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Official website	Decca Records Decca Classics Decca Gold Decca Records US

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its UK label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp (the first president of the Decca Record company of the USA) and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president too. In 1937, anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, and the link between the UK and US Decca label was broken for several decades.^[1] The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre.

In 1947, following World War II, British Decca re-established distribution in the United States through its new subsidiary London Records. The London trademark name has also been used in other countries such as Canada, Mexico, Germany and Japan.

In 1973, the US Decca label became MCA Records, which formed half of what is now Universal Music Group (UMG). The UK and US divisions of the former Decca label were combined under UMG in 1998 and the MCA brand was retired in 2003 (with the exception of the American MCA Nashville country music imprint).