Dianas genius -80s/90s RCA/EMI/Motown deal...

[nomis]

Ive always thought Diana's signing with RCA/EMI in '81 an incredibly skillful,masterstroke of planning..there are so many sides to the deal...by splitting her album and single marketing to different labels internationally she doubled her chance of success..the 20 million she got for the deal got me thinking - it couldnt have all been from RCA..EMI must have contributed to the grand sum for signing as well..and part of the masterstroke was EMI had already marketed her product for a long time..so it was in part a continuation of a successful buisness relationship..half of the whole deal must have given a sense of security that outside the US she was in the hands of people who she knew and trusted already..there was a much bigger picture than the US in the deal and it was all to her advantage...if RCA failed to meet her standards [[as it eventually did) there was another label on the deal elsewhere..and this is where the big pay off came - as she resigned to Motown in 89 for an undisclosed amount of stock..EMI still got most of the world..so the part of the original deal that worked continued [[to greater success)..if Polygram had won the rights to distribute the 90s Motown albums would they have achieved the success EMI got for them internationally ? I doubt it..the whole concept of splitting your bets across the globe for your releases was a masterstroke..plus you have both labels cross sharing the promotional material..in essence doubling the marketing spend...

[nomis]

take "Why Do Fools " video..RCA payed the initial cost of the budget...EMI get the clip free to promote their artist in the UK...the money EMI would usually spend on a video for their artist is free...or did RCA and EMI both combine the costs of videos,photoshoots,studio time etc ?? or did a percentage of EMIs profits have to go back to RCA then later Motown ?its so darn tricky because the deal is so complex..for the videos ultimatley Anaid owned them..so was part of the 20 mill advance to fund this and RTC ? if thats so then it wasnt 20 Mill up front it was 20 mill with part of that an investment for her companies...hmmm

[Jimi LaLumia]

I doubt that an existing deal with EMI UK had anything at all to do with a new U.S. deal with RCA...different teritories and all that..

[carlo]

Did EMI sell/market Diana's albums overseas before her deal with RCA in 1981? I was always under the impression that Motown exclusively sold, marketed and distributed all of her albums around the world up until 1980?

[carlo]

Looks like I've answered my own question. EMI distributed and manufactured "The Boss" in Germany and presumably in other EU countries as well...

http://www.discogs.com/Diana-Ross-The-Boss/release/537367

So did her association with EMI begin in 1979? Or before this?

[Jimi LaLumia]

It was Tamla Motown and then plain old Motown in the UK right up till Why Do Fools Fall In Love, which was released on RCA in US and Capitol in the UK;
her last Motown UK single was "Crying My Heart Out For You" in June 1981,which peaked at #58!..
"Fools' made it to #4 in the UK immediately after[[Nov. 81),followed by a Motown release of "Tenderness" which died at #73 over there[[Jan.82), and then some stiffs, a Top ten[[Work That Body,May 82)a lot of stiffs and then, in 86, Chain Reaction went to #1..
both the EMI and RCA deals started at the same time, EMI was NOT in play before the RCA deal, but they were separate negotiations, and I think EMI had her earlier in other international territories

[nomis]

I thinks its around that time because I know EMI had 'diana' lp because when I worked there someone gave me a huge poster of the inner sleeve and the EMI logo is at the bottom...[[this was many years later)

[Laserdk]

EMI only had the "Diana" LP as EMI was the UK and European distributor of all Motown product at that time as all Motown releases carried the Motown logo with the EMI Records Ltd moniker next to it to note EMI as the distributor. When Motown changed their UK and European distribution to RCA in October 1981 all of Diana Ross's Motown material went to RCA as well because all of Diana's recorded material up to when she parted company with Motown in April 1981 remained under Motown's ownership and, of course, still does [[well, with Universal being the parent company).

Ivor

[reese]

In 1981, SOUL magazine reported that Diana was to receive $15 million up front, and the remainder over the rest of the contract. Whther this is true or not, only Diana knows.