Which Factors Determined Which Artist Went To Which Motown Label?

[texassoul]

Why were The Supremes at Motown, The Temptations at Gordy, etc.?

[BigAl]

Since most recording companies split their acts among several different labels so as not to appear to glut the charts [[and, probably for business/accounting reasons as well), it's always been a source of curiosity for me as well as to how it's determined which acts go where. This is all conjecture on my part, but at the beginning there was only Tamla so the first acts all appeared on that label: Miracles, Marvelettes, even Supremes [[who were, of course, moved to Motown after their second single). When the other subsidiaries came along, it seems to me it might have been a matter of their musical styles. Motown had Mary Wells, The Supremes, The Four Tops — all of whom probably had the greatest crossover potential. Tamla, as I mentioned, had the original acts and the first hitmakers: Miracles, Marvelettes and later Marvin Gaye. Gordy had the harder-hitters: Martha/Vandellas, Tempts, Kim Weston. Soul had the gutsier acts: Junior Walker and, later, Gladys/Pips. VIP had the "second string" and the newcomers: Velvelettes [[later moved to Soul), Chris Clark [[later moved to Motown), Spinners [[moved over ["demoted?"] from Motown). Why some of these acts were moved from one label to another remains a question to me.

[luke]

Makes sense. I think sometimes they just switched em if they hadnt had a hit, to shake up things.

[texassoul]

Thank you for your responses! Anyone else??

[Motown4Ever518]

texassoul, great take, among the business reasons was the possibility of pay for play, which would make one label a target if they had so much product on the airwaves at once. The other reason for the split labels is that you could have 2 promotions people work a market and basically compete against each other with the different labels they repped, and the winner would ultimately be Hitsville. But I do like your original thought of who was assigned to what label. BG strikes me as someone who is that calculating.

[Constantin]

I don't have the answer to your question but some artists could also change labels, like*Chuck Jason who went from Motown to VIP [[more or less an exile).