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Geffen/DGC, MCA, and Universal
Geffen Records was founded in 1980 by David Geffen, with funding from Warner Bros Records. Warner-Electra-Atlantic also distributed Geffen up to 1990. The subsidiary company DGC Records (David Geffen Company) was created in 1990 as the "rock division" of Geffen, and Nirvana signed to DGC the same year. According to Wikipedia, DGC ceased all of its operations in the late 90's, except to be an exclusive imprint for all the Nirvana material, reissues and new releases, though Sonic Youth's 2002 album "Murray Street" has a DGC logo. Although Nirvana has been on Geffen/DGC ever since they signed in 1990, changes of ownership of the label and parent companies, and mergers have happened a few times. These events show up as changes on reissues and new releases, and knowing exactly why and when these changes started to appear one can rougly place the year of manufacture of a reissue.  1990-1998: MCA, Matsushita, Seagram, Universal When the contract with Warner expired, David Geffen sold the label to MCA Music Entertainment Group in 1990, shortly after Nirvana had signed to DGC. (David Geffen worked as head of the label until 1995.) Later that same year the entire MCA Inc. holding company was purchased by the Japanese company Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. So, by the time Nirvana released their major label debut, they were on DGC, one of many MCA labels, utlimately owned by Matsushita. In 1995, Seagram Company Ltd. acquired 80% of MCA Inc. from Matsushita. Seagram was a Canadian liquor distilling company. They dropped the MCA name in 1996. The company became Universal Studios, Inc. and its music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group. The Universal name came from a film production company MCA took over in 1962, Universal Pictures, when they bought their parent company, Decca Records. Even though Nirvana releases are referred to as "MCA issues" and "Universal issues", it was still the same company, meaning the collection of all the old MCA labels (at least in 1996), only the (holding) company was owned by another company. One could assume that this is when Universal credits started to appear, but it seems that didn't happen before 1998.  1998: Reorganization Universal Music Group acquired PolyGram in 1998, resulting in a corporate reorganization of labels. Geffen Records, along with A&M Records, was subsequently merged into Interscope Records. Although Geffen continued to exist as its own imprint, it was now reduced in size and stature to fit into the greater expansion of Interscope. Geffen's DGC division, meanwhile, ceased operations and was absorbed into Interscope and Geffen. It's at this time the changes seems to first appear on releases, due to the new Interscope-style catalog numbers. Below are features found on releases, first from the MCA era, then the 1998 Universal changes.  1990-1998: The David Geffen Company, an MCA Company Catalog number (European Nevermind CD example): GED 24425 Label code: LC 7266 First five digits of the UPC: 72064 (identifies Geffen/DGC) Performing rights organizations listed (European releases): BIEM/GEMA Discs manufactured by: Many different plants Distributed in Europe, Australia, South America by: Various divisions of BMG Distributed in USA by: UNI Distribution Corp. Distributed in Japan by: MCA Victor  1998-2000+: The David Geffen Company, a Universal Music Company Catalog number (European Nevermind CD example): GED 24425 424 425-2 Label code: LC 07266 First five digits of the UPC: 72064 (identifies Geffen/DGC, remained the same) Performing rights organizations listed (European releases): BIEM/MCPS Discs manufactured by: Universal plants if possible, until they were sold at some point Distributed worldwide by: Universal Music Distribution (or other names, see link to place items more exactly) The most important change is the catalog number. A new code was added to reissues in addition to the old Geffen catalog number, which started with a 4, then the Geffen number without prefix, followed by a -2 for CDs and -1 for vinyl records. This follows the pattern of the Interscope releases at the time, 49x xxx-2, which form comes from their UPC, so it's reasonable to place this change in 1998 because that's then Geffen came "under" Interscope. In Japan, catalog numbers changed from the MCA Victor numbers MVCG-xxxxx to UICY-xxxx. Also, as it seems Universal had to clone their old releases when reissuing old releases, "an MCA Company" and other features may not have been edited away, or maybe only on the back insert and not on the disc, so this is not always 100%.  2000-present: Vivendi SA Vivendi SA took over the entertainment part of Seagram in 2000, including its 80% shares of Universal. Vivendi changed name to Vivendi Universal. Vivendi Universal purchased the remaining 20% from Matsushita in February 2006 (and the parent company dropped the Universal name to become only Vivendi again). Further changes can be found on post-2000 releases, but this has nothing to do with the Vivendi takeover, but the relationship between Geffen and Interscope. By 2000, despite Geffen Records no longer being independently operated within UMG and taking a more submissive position behind Interscope, it continued to do steady business, so much so that in 2003, UMG folded MCA Records into Geffen, finally retiring the MCA name for good (though the MCA Nashville Records label still has MCA in their name). Geffen now have more or less "equal" footing with the main Interscope label.  Changes 2000-present As my comparison above shows, Geffen kept their "UPC repertoire" of 72064, but only until 2000. That year the first five digits in the UPC on Geffen releases changed to 60694, an Interscope number. At this time, new releases on Geffen started having Interscope catalog numbers only, 49x xxx-2, omitting the GED/DGC etc prefices. Notice that the second number is 9, so it's an actual Interscope catalog number, not just a 1998-2000 Geffen number written the Interscope way as with 42x xxx-2. In 2002, catalog numbers on Geffen releases were a mix of the 49 numbers or 0694xxxxxx, which takes four of the five first digits of the UPC to start with. In 2004 the UPC changed to 60249, still an Interscope UPC, and catalog numbers were mostly just the same as the UPC or B000xxxx-xx. For examples, all the catalog numbers for Nirvana, With The Lights Out, and Sliver The Best Of The Box listed on those pages, except the Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, have Interscope catalog numbers even though they are on Geffen/DGC.
Thanks to Discogs, Universal Music Group, and Wikipedia.

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