Motown no longer part of Universal

[jack020]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/motown-records-share-resources-island-216016

[nabob]

Which Motown is this article discussing? It seems as if it is referring to the current roster of "new motown" artists. There is no mention of product belonging to the legacy artists of the sixties and seventies.

[milven]

Motown is still part of UMG. This sounds more like some kind of re-organization. Def Jam is part of UMG and the way that I interpret the article is that Motown is now under the Def Jam umbrella. What the article does not make clear is if the Motown Classic catalogue is also under the Def Jam umbrella. The Motown site is still divided into two divisions, Universal Motown and Classic Motown http://www.motown.com/

[soulster]

We discussed this here a couple of weeks ago. UMG [[Universal Music Group) still owns the Motown name and it's assets, but Motown will cease to be an active label for new artists. It will only exist as a label imprint for vintage product, like, say, a Temptations reissue. The Motown label has been folded into Def Jam.

Def Jam is a UMG label. See, it all works as a tired system. UMG > Def Jam > Motown http://www.universalmusic.com/labels As you see, the Motown logo no longer exists.


The reason this was done and not the other way around is because There are more active hit artists on Def Jam, and almost none on Motown. It's about name popular name recognition, and there the money is. There must be some stigma attached to a new artist that appears on the Motown label, as the legendary Motor City label is associated with, well, old music.

I hate it too, but that's big business for you!

[jobeterob]

I agree with Soulster............Motown is non synonymous with a "type" of music and it is also synonymous with "old". In the corporate world, that is not all that desirable.

[nabob]

Motown will cease to be an active label for new artists. It will only exist as a label imprint for vintage product, like, say, a Temptations reissue. The Motown label has been folded into Def Jam.This is a good thing. The current artist roster in no way emulated or resembled the legacy of Motown.

[jobeterob]

Nabob is completely right.

[thommg]

It sounds, from the article, as if Motown will still exist in some fashion for new artists. If the new president has a staff of 12 and has the ability to actively sign new artists where would they go? And if they are fazing out Motown as a label, why was Kelly Rowland's new album a Motown release? Sounds more like in house maneuvering than anything else. We probably won't notice any difference.