How did the Motown groups divide the money earned?

[RBTEMPSFAN]

I was wondering how the groups divided the money.

BG always said that with the Supremes, everything was equally divided. Even after Mary and Cindy stopped recording, they were paid royalties.

But how about this - if a group had five members like the Temps and a group had 4 members like the Tops, wouldn't the tops have made out better since they were dividing by 4 rather than 5?

And for the Marvelettes, weren't they better off when they went from 5 to 4 to 3 people?

So does anyone have any information about how things were split?

Also, with Smokey, since he was really the leader, did the Miracles get an equal cut?

[carlo]

I remember Smokey mentioning in his book that the rest of the Miracles received the same pay that he got for gigs, etc. But then of course he wrote a lot of songs on his own, so in that case, he got his own songwriting royalties as well [[as well as Pete and Ronnie). I'm sure he also received additional pay for being the VP of Motown. But when it came to the group, I think everybody got an equal cut all around.

[arrr&bee]

Well this is how it went..on payday berry would gather everyone together in the studio and after he took his cut he would give them each a quarter and tell em that if they were late for rehersal he would deduce fifteen cents from the next pay...hehehehehehehehehehe...don't kill me just messin with ya!!!

[topdiva1]

I believe in her book DREAMGIRL MY LIFE WITH THE SUPREMES Mary Wilson report that for every dollar made the girls, split 3 and 1/2 pennies between them. As for the rest of the money who knows where it went or to whom. Berry Gordy did admit in his book TO BE LOVED - that perhaps he kept more than his fair share of the take - but adjusted his unfair earnings - by stating that regardless of how much they did or did not get - he had made them all household names - thus they could work forever. But Gordy, who in the hell wants to work FOREVER.