Reason for the Different Labels from Motown

Yes, this has probably been discussed here before, however, I would really appreciate any answer you may know as fact [[or even hypothesis). Why did Motown operate with different labels [[such as Gordy, Tamla, Soul, etc) as opposed to everything being under the umbrella of just a Motown label? I believe I may have read from a book about Motown that it was for tax reasons. Was there indeed a financial incentive to have different labels from one company?

Also, what factors determined who would be assigned to what label? My thinking is that although there was a definite Motown sound, each individual label had its own 'vibe' to it regarding its artists and the 'sound." Just my opinion, however, I felt the artists' output on the actual Motown label was the sound that could identify more with the pop sound in American music during the 60s. Tamla, Gordy, and Soul each had more of an r&b sound to various degrees. All of this is my opinion and perception. We do know that there were several other subsidiary labels, each with their own vibe.

I also recall that because the Motown company was putting out so much good music during the 60s, dee jays around the country might have been put off by seeing or playing so much music from one label, therefore Motown needed to provide its artists with different labels as not to saturate the market.

It appeared also that each of the subsidiary labels had their own key producers/writers. Yes, I know all of the writers/producers worked for all of the labels, however, some tend to be identified more with one particular label than another. [[HDH-Motown, Whitfield-Gordy, Robinson-Tamla, etc.)

Does anyone have any information you may have learned through the years?

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Originally Posted by jobucats

Yes, this has probably been discussed here before, however, I would really appreciate any answer you may know as fact [[or even hypothesis). Why did Motown operate with different labels [[such as Gordy, Tamla, Soul, etc) as opposed to everything being under the umbrella of just a Motown label? I believe I may have read from a book about Motown that it was for tax reasons. Was there indeed a financial incentive to have different labels from one company?

Also, what factors determined who would be assigned to what label? My thinking is that although there was a definite Motown sound, each individual label had its own 'vibe' to it regarding its artists and the 'sound." Just my opinion, however, I felt the artists' output on the actual Motown label was the sound that could identify more with the pop sound in American music during the 60s. Tamla, Gordy, and Soul each had more of an r&b sound to various degrees. All of this is my opinion and perception. We do know that there were several other subsidiary labels, each with their own vibe.

I also recall that because the Motown company was putting out so much good music during the 60s, dee jays around the country might have been put off by seeing or playing so much music from one label, therefore Motown needed to provide its artists with different labels as not to saturate the market.

It appeared also that each of the subsidiary labels had their own key producers/writers. Yes, I know all of the writers/producers worked for all of the labels, however, some tend to be identified more with one particular label than another. [[HDH-Motown, Whitfield-Gordy, Robinson-Tamla, etc.)

Does anyone have any information you may have learned through the years?

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Motown was able to get radio stations to play more of their music if it wasn't all coming from just one "label". The multiple labels were a nod to Berry Gordy's work on the automobile assembly lines [[where companies like General Motors made and marketed cars under different names such as 'Chevrolet', 'Pontiac', 'Cadilliac' and so on). Finally, Motown had certain labels for certain types of music: there was Workshop Jazz for Jazz, Divinity for Gospel, Rare Earth for late '60s Rock & Pop and so on.

Berry was a genius doing that. No other label president had the drive he did. You have to admire that. He created a WHOLE EMPIRE out of simply creating label homes for them.

And the multiple label thing was prominent in the fifties too, to designate different types of music. Groove [[RCA), Okeh [[Columbia) and Atco[[Atlantic) are just a few examples.

Thank you, Motown Eddie, midnightman, and lockhartgary for your informative responses. It pretty much aligns with what I thought.

Ralph would probably have a good answer, but if occurs to me that once Tamla became a popular label, Motown was a catchy name...at that point, the additional labels made Motown appear to be a major player with Soul focusing on certain artists, Gordy allowed Gordy to not having groups like the Tempts and 4Tops competing with each other on the same label, same goes for the girl groups recording on different labels.. VIP seems to me to be more of a developmental label, and eventually the Rare Earth label. allowed that group to achieve it's own identity All those labels in retrospect makes a lot of sense...

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Originally Posted by StuBass1

Ralph would probably have a good answer, but if occurs to me that once Tamla became a popular label, Motown was a catchy name...at that point, the additional labels made Motown appear to be a major player with Soul focusing on certain artists, Gordy allowed Gordy to not having groups like the Tempts and 4Tops competing with each other on the same label, same goes for the girl groups recording on different labels.. VIP seems to me to be more of a developmental label, and eventually the Rare Earth label. allowed that group to achieve it's own identity All those labels in retrospect makes a lot of sense...

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Yes, it does. Thanks, Stubass 1

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Originally Posted by lockhartgary

And the multiple label thing was prominent in the fifties too, to designate different types of music. Groove [[RCA), Okeh [[Columbia) and Atco[[Atlantic) are just a few examples.

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Yep. King had Federal also. I think Atlantic had Impulse! for jazz recordings too. And Warner had Reprise [[Sinatra's label).

And Warner had soul label Loma for awhile.

Motown's "Miracle" subsidiary was formed as early as 1961, but seems to have been discontinued in favour of "Gordy", with the Temptations being the only act carried across. "Melody" was formed in 1962, but after having no hits as an R&B label was converted into a country label the following year.

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Originally Posted by 144man

Motown's "Miracle" subsidiary was formed as early as 1961, but seems to have been discontinued in favour of "Gordy", with the Temptations being the only act carried across. "Melody" was formed in 1962, but after having no hits as an R&B label was converted into a country label the following year.

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Two other acts on the Miracle imprint besides The Temptations, The Valadiers & Jimmy Ruffin, were to appear on other Motown labels. Starting in 1964, Jimmy Ruffin would be placed the Soul Label and The Valadiers would have their final two singles on Gordy. And the Melody imprint would have no major hits as either an R&B or Country label.

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Originally Posted by Motown Eddie

Two other acts on the Miracle imprint besides The Temptations, The Valadiers & Jimmy Ruffin, were to appear on other Motown labels. Starting in 1964, Jimmy Ruffin would be placed the Soul Label and The Valadiers would have their final two singles on Gordy. And the Melody imprint would have no major hits as either an R&B or Country label.

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I totally forgot that the Valadiers' "Greetings [[This Is Uncle Sam)" had been on Miracle.
Although Melody had no hits, it fared better when it was revived as Melodyland in 1974 after a nine year hiatus, though it had to change its name [to Hitsvillle] for legal reasons in 1976. Dorsey Burnette recorded both on Melody and Melodyland.

It's awesome that Motown was such a successful label that it had labels within itself, many of which would have been pretty successful labels on their own :D

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Originally Posted by Motown Eddie

Motown was able to get radio stations to play more of their music if it wasn't all coming from just one "label". The multiple labels were a nod to Berry Gordy's work on the automobile assembly lines [[where companies like General Motors made and marketed cars under different names such as 'Chevrolet', 'Pontiac', 'Cadilliac' and so on). Finally, Motown had certain labels for certain types of music: there was Workshop Jazz for Jazz, Divinity for Gospel, Rare Earth for late '60s Rock & Pop and so on.

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Never thought about the labels as like the different car makes from the assembly line. How great!

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Originally Posted by midnightman

Yep. King had Federal also. I think Atlantic had Impulse! for jazz recordings too. And Warner had Reprise [[Sinatra's label).

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Attachment 14972
King had Federal, DeLuxe, Bethlehem, Queen; Atlantic had ATCO, Cat, East-West, Cotillion; RCA had X, Vik, Groove, Chess had Checker, Argo,Cadet, Cadet Concept, Marterry; Columbia had Epic, Okeh, Date, Decca had Brunswick, Coral, Kapp, Uni, Revue, Congress; Warner Brothers had Reprise, Loma, 7 Arts, Warwick; Mercury has EmArCy, Wing, Smash, Fontana, Limelight, Pulsar; Modern had Kent, RPM, Flair, Crown; MGM had Metro, Orbit, Cub, Verve, Kama Sutra, Colossus; ABC had APT, Impulse, Tangerine, Dunhill, Oliver, Riverside, Battle, Duke, Peacock, Backbeat, and Sure Shot; Capitol had Tower, Uptown and Infinity; Liberty had Imperial, Minit, Sunset, Dolton, Double-L, Blue Note, Pacific Jazz, and World Pacific; United Artists had Unart, VEEP, DCP, Musicor, Ascot, and Solid State; VJ had Falcon, Abner, Tollie, Vivid, Exodus, J-V.


There were different reasons for having subsidiary companies[[record labels). Motown, was started after Tamla was successful, partly to get more capacity to have records played, but, also to divide product to more than one distributor, so as not to be dependent upon just one. Miracle seem to have been started partly to give Miss Ray a chance to run some production operations on the side [[eg. without getting in Berry's and Smokey's way). Miracle was essentially dissolved and its artist folded into the new Gordy label in 1962. Rich was started up as a joint venture of James Hendrix and Berry in 1962-63, and Inferno as a joint venture of Harry Balk and Motown, when Balk was brought in to run VIP was started up as L.A. Jobete Music's outlet, for Hal Davis to run, but it soon became a place to dump acts that Motown hadn't decided what to do with yet. MoWest was for L.A. product. Mel-O-dy was started as a 4th Motown label with Soul artists, but was quickly changed to a C&W label. Workshop Jazz was started to market Jazz, and Divinity as a Gospel/Spiritual label, and Black Forum started as a political label.

Some labels bought out others, and then ran them as their own, to get their artists, or their catalogue, or the rights to their songs, some new labels were subsidiaries because they were co-owned or joint ventures, others were outlets for specific artists, songwriters or to market specific music genres.

The well-accepted story for years is that Berry G did not want programmers to be flooded with too many concurrent releases on one label so he gave different label names to different artists.