Short answers, pulled from the story.
MGM Records launched in 1946 to release soundtrack recordings from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio musical films. The label issued its first album for Till the Clouds Roll By, a movie about composer Jerome Kern.
Producers edited eight song selections to fit physical limits of four 10-inch 78-rpm records without using magnetic tape. They copied segments from playback discs used on set and re-copied them multiple times to create a master through several generations of transfer that degraded sound quality.
Magnetic tape technology had been perfected for recording use within the industry by 1950. This innovation marked a significant improvement in sound quality for long play albums starting in 1951 and allowed producers to move away from dry disc transfers that suffered from generational loss.
MGM Records acquired Verve Records from Norman Granz in December 1960 and launched Cub Records in the late 1950s. Other distributed labels included Kama Sutra and American International Records while artists like Connie Francis and Herman's Hermits achieved hit records on the label.
The company operated its own record manufacturing plant at Bloomfield New Jersey from 1947 until 1972. This facility pressed not only their own records but also handled sub-contract work for other companies like Atlantic Records before the division closed when MGM Records was sold to PolyGram in 1972.