'60s Motown Contracts

[westgrandboulevard]

Can anyone here say how the '60s Motown contracts were set out?

For an act to fulfil the terms of their contract, were there ever specifications of a minimum number of recordings to be made, if not actual releases?

Did similar contractual obligations ever apply to the musicians, songwriters and producers?

[Jimi LaLumia]

a word comes to mind.........
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/draconian

[theboyfromxtown]

Can anyone here say how the '60s Motown contracts were set out?

For an act to fulfil the terms of their contract, were there ever specifications of a minimum number of recordings to be made, if not actual releases?

Did similar contractual obligations ever apply to the musicians, songwriters and producers?

One of the Velvelettes [[and also a Vandella) still has their original contract. They were typed in those days - can you imagine typing out 5 of them.

[woodward]

One of the Velvelettes [[and also a Vandella) still has their original contract. They were typed in those days - can you imagine typing out 5 of them.

It would be very interesting if you could ask her to copy the contract she has and send it to you for publication on the MF. That would be great.

[theboyfromxtown]

Even though it's over 50 years ago, the Velvelette is not happy to share it publicly. I'm not sure about the Vandella though.

[robb_k]

They used carbon paper in those days.

[theboyfromxtown]

They used carbon paper in those days.

In the UK, carbon paper was only to make a copy of an original. It was never used for the original.

[jobeterob]

Generally speaking, I've seen contracts from the late 1970's that were 1 page long - dealing with the sale of a business.

These days, those same contracts would be at least 40 pages long without schedules and attachments.

So, I suspect the contracts from the 1960's were very modest documents.

In a sense, they might cause some embarrassment because of their simplicity - but the world was a different place. And perhaps it was better.