Motowb records shuttered !! R.i.p. :-[[

[Randy Holmes]

Fare The Well Motown ! :-[[ .... Thankd for the great music ! :-[[ .. In other words ?...... MOTOWN RECORDS IS NO MORE !! :-[[
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/061711motown

[luke]

Sad. I wonder if this affects some employees we know here.

[soulster]

Read carefully:

Of course, Motown is an incredibly-powerful name, so the imprint will remain. But in business terms, this is either getting eliminated or massively reduced. Meanwhile, UMG umbrella units Universal Motown Republic Group and Island Def Jam Music Group have consolidated a number of backend functions to reduce redundencies and overhead, according to information confirmed by the company.

This means that Motown still exists, but will fall under the operations of Island/Def Jam. This means that as far as new artists and music is concerned, that's gone, as new music is what the labels concentrate on.

If the company issues, say, a Supremes reissue, the Motown label will still be used. The company will no longer me a separate unit as in the past. Of course, as record comanies go, that could always change in the future under some other leadership.

[Randy Holmes]

Read carefully:



This means that Motown still exists, but will fall under the operations of Island/Def Jam. This means that as far as new artists and music is concerned, that's gone, as new music is what the labels concentrate on.

If the company issues, say, a Supremes reissue, the Motown label will still be used. The company will no longer me a separate unit as in the past. Of course, as record comanies go, that could always change in the future under some other leadership.

Soulster, you have a point because if the powers that be want to bring back, say, Uptown Records, they could do so overnight .... the same way WMG brought back the Elektra imprint a couple of years ago, after being dormant for so long.

[carlo]

In my eyes, Motown truly ended when Berry Gordy sold the company in 1988. After that, it just became part of a corporate conglomerate.

[danman869]

I agree with Carlo. Wasn't Lindsay Lohan signed to Motown within the last ten years? If that doesn't smack of being part of a corporate conglomerate, I don't know what does. I mean, Lindsay Lohan is no Chris Clark or Teena Marie.

[tamla617]

motowns still coming out thru ace/kent,reel music, hipo-select and a few others.we'll still get our fix

[soulster]

Soulster, you have a point because if the powers that be want to bring back, say, Uptown Records, they could do so overnight .... the same way WMG brought back the Elektra imprint a couple of years ago, after being dormant for so long.

That's right! These label heads can do whatever they want. They could revitalize the Motown label next year and turn it into a rock label if they wanted.

[tamla617]

and call it rare earth

[candykamaine]

I also agree with Carlo too, although I like many post 88 stuff from the label, After 1988 motown is just motown in name only.

Danmann, And I look on Lindsey's wiki from both of her album and it said Casablanca, [[the label that donna summer was signed to) no mention of Motown on either entry.

[robbert]

I don't care, well... maybe a bit for sentimental reasons.
BUT...
As long as Harry Weinger and his crew can go on with their invaluable work and give us the vaulted Motown stuff, it's alright with me, even if they were to release it under Santa Claus' name.
I hope we soon will get a message from within the crew, to give us peace.

[kenneth]

Well, the news is bittersweet, no doubt. It occurred to me, however, that I can't think of any other label that became a type of music just by referring to the label moniker. For example, as great as those labels were, no one ever said "Let's listen to some Atlantic music," or "King records." So they're wise to keep the "brand" alive, which is what Berry Gordy's genius strived so hard to create.

[MIKEW-UK]

Hi Kenneth,

I agree with you , perhaps the Philly sound and Philadelphia International come closest?

cheers Mike

[kenneth]

Hi Kenneth,

I agree with you , perhaps the Philly sound and Philadelphia International come closest?

cheers Mike

Ah yes...true..true...!

[jobeterob]

No surprise here; they just aren't selling CDs the way they used to. Just one of many consolidations and cost cutting moves.

So, was Erykah Baydhu [[sp) right?

Motown left with Berry, so it's just fine.

I wonder if Universal is home to some executives that still think teenagers are going to go back to buying CDs and paying for downloads?

[telekin]

I guess this just means that Universal had given up the ghost, as far as using Motown as a contemporary label. I can't say I'm surprised, it has looked like that for a while especially since 2005/6 or so, when they further re-branded the contemporary side as UniversalMotown.. IMO, the last bright spot with Motown as a contemporary label was around ten years ago under Kedar Massenburg. He was probably the only one since Berry Gordy who was able to translate the Motown brand and it's history in black music into something contemporary, re-branding Motown as a hub for neo-soul with artists like Erykah Badu, India Arie, Remy Shand, resigning Smokey etc... Not that I follow too closely, but it seems after Sylvia Rhone took over from him [[which seemed to come with an interesting logo change), they weren't able, or were unwilling to continue with that focus. I always thought that was too bad.