Unidisc Music  

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Unidisc Music Inc, is one of Canada’s largest independent record labels. The company has been expanding in growth and productivity since the late 1970s. The label is best known for releasing rare and hard-to-find rock, electronic, funk, soul, hip hop, jazz, reggae, latin, and a cappella music made between the mid-1960s and late 1980s on vinyl records and CDs with copies of original album sleeves and liner notes. It is the owner of the 1982–1993 Sutra Records catalogue and of several other independent New York street-oriented labels that the latter distributed. Its headquarters are located and operated out of Montreal, Quebec.

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Function

Unidisc’s main acquisition of revenue has always been by selling synch rights of the songs they own. When the rights are purchased from their catalogue, the songs are then incorporated into mainstream entertainment through movies, t.v. shows, animations, commercials and video games. Their reach has tapped into major hit productions such as Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Sex in the City, Grey’s Anatomy, Bones, CSI: Miami, Dancing with the Stars, Flashdance, Fame, Studio 54, Summer of Sam, Bad Santa, Joe Dirt, Rio, Open Season, G Force, Dreyers Ice Cream, Gap, Diet Pepsi, Miller Coors, Grand Theft Auto and many more. Unidisc Music’s publishing functions operate and deal under Unitunes (ASCAP), Lovetown Music (BMI), Socan-affiliated Blue Image, Keep On Music, Star Quality Music, and Prime Quality Music .

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History 1980s-1990s

As a continuously diversifying corporation, its main function has still kept consistency while also broadening their horizons. Once solely an independent music and publishing company, has now augmented full stride into the modernized world of media technology. Through utilities such as YouTube, ITunes, Facebook, My Space and Twitter, Unidisc Records has enabled itself to market their products far and wide. Reputable for their infamous catalogue pertaining the rights to over 35 thousand smash hits, Unidisc ultimately made a dent in the industry during the start of the 1980s. The wide variety of iconic artists they have worked with, encouraging their success, are legends such as Lime, Erotic Drum Band, Gino Soccio, Nightlife Unlimited, Trans X, Freddie James, Geraldine Hunt and many more. However, it was only in the 1990s that the record label established worldwide recognition, acquiring publishing rights to various superstar artists. A few among the ranks consist of Celine Dion, David Bowie, April Wine, Patrick Norman, Robert Charlebois, Babyface, T.L.C., Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, Usher, Corey Hart and an extensive list of other top charters.

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Founder

George Cucuzzella, the pioneer and founder of this colossal label, began his distinguished career as a nightclub DJ seeking business in the heart of downtown Montreal. Rising quickly to the top DJ in the 1970s, he spun at the hippest clubs of the era: Limelight, Le Tube and 2001. Gaining steady success in his trade of passion, George cleverly formed a Canadian Record Pool, supplying his mixes to other DJ’s across Quebec. With tedious work, George earned international reputation for his remixes regarding tracks such as ‘’Lady Bump’’ by Penny MacLean, ‘’Don’t Stop the Music’’ by Bay City Rollers, and ‘’ Love to Love’’ by Tina Charles.

Fuelling his hunger further into the realm of music, he then decided to explore the industry indefinitely. As a building tool, George supplied himself with an educational type of stepping stone; it was called, Downstairs Records. Through this, he became a dance music import/exporter and indie-store supplier. Sharpening his newly attained business skills with his natural knack for music, George gave birth to his next and final creation, Unidisc Music, which officially launched in the year of 1977. Rarely passing through interviews, George has claimed that his proudest achievement is being co-publisher, through Unitunes, of David Bowie's 1975 hit, Fame. This long time interest of his was purchased from guitarist Carlos Alomar, who co-penned the song with John Lennon and David Bowie.

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Achievements

Through the years the company has acquired a commendable and vast territory of assets including the attainment of recording and publishing rights of New York-based, Prelude Records. Included in it was Musique’s 1978 dance floor hit ‘’In The Bush’’, as well as tracks by Saturday Night Band, Inner life, D Train, and Unlimited Touch. Following this unorthodox gamble, Unidisc never looked back, gradually purchasing and accumulating rights to Megatone Records, Quality Records, Ahed Music, Emergency Records, Midland International, De-Lite Records, Network Records, and Pickwick Records. Noticeable Canadian labels include Daffodil, MWC, and Attic. In tune with the latest and constant trends in the new millennium of music, the label kept pace with the fast changing industry, collaborating with top charting moguls including Kanye West, Missy Elliot, Snoop Dogg, Limp Bizkit, LL Cool J, Notorious B.I.G., Coolio, Dr. Dre, Faith Evans, Lil’ Jon, Chris Brown and others. In 2008, coming as surprise to competing record labels, Unidisc Music made a bold and aggressive move, it was the purchasing of two heavyweight record labels, Aquarius and Tacca Musique. Arguably the pinnacle of Unidisc's mile stone was achieved in 2010. Forming a monstrous merger with Unidisc Music and DEP, was Canada's number 1 leading music company, Universal Music Canada. Randy Lennox, the president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, was quoted saying, George Cucuzzella has built Unidisc into a forward thinking and successful music company and we are thrilled to be working alongside his entire team. This partnership between our companies will continue to strengthen Universal's commitment to the Quebec marketplace and will allow Unidisc and DEP to fully benefit from this strategic alliance.

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Recent Activity

Driving the company further into the future while still harnessing all wisdom and work ethic that is offered, George’s son, Francis Cucuzzella, has proved to be equally as savvy in the business of music and entertainment. Young and ambitious, Francis, while the number 2 go to guy at Unidisc, has also started his own record company titled, Kookoo Records and Artist Management. Working on seeking and attaining relations with young aspiring artists and producers, Francis plans on not only building his company, but building more upon his fathers as well.

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See also

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Selected Unidisc Artists

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Sublabels


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Unidisc Music" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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