Record Label

Motown

The legendary Motown label was founded on January 12, 1959 and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960 by Berry Gordy, Jr., who merged his two successful imprints, Tamla (whose first release was Marv Johnson's "Come to Me" on January 21, 1959) and Motown (first release was the Miracles' "Bad Girl" on September 6, 1959). It was one of the most successful independent record companies in history. Its stable of hit-making artists such as The Miracles, The Supremes, The Temptations and many, many others, along with a talented staff of musicians and songwriters, collectively created the "Motown Sound," a world famous hybrid of soul, doo-wop, rhythm & blues and pop. Its motto was "The Sound of Young America". For any counterfeit, bootleg, or unofficial releases of this label please use In July 1983 it was announced that Motown would begin distribution with MCA Distribution, with "the transferring of the Motown line from independent distribution expected to begin July 15". After a court case decided in their favor in mid-August, they began immediately distributing Motown product in the last week of August. Motown releases that list MCA Distribution are from 1983 through 1990. Motown remained independent until 1988, when MCA Records and private equity firm Boston Ventures teamed up to buy the label from Gordy for $61 million. It was bought again by PolyGram in 1993, becoming a part of the Universal Music Group after it purchased PolyGram in 1999. Within Universal, Motown was incorporated into various other subsidiaries, the first being the Universal Motown Records Group from 2000 to 2011, when it was moved to the Island Def Jam Music Group, until 2014 once UMG disbanded both label groups. Motown became a label in its own right again, transitioning under Universal's Capitol Music Group arm. In January 2023, Motown has been divested from the Capitol Music Group while remaining under the Universal Music Group, before returning to Capitol a year later in early 2024. That same year, Capitol and Motown became consolidated into the new Interscope Capitol Labels Group, which also consists of other UMG labels belonging to Interscope Records. A year later, Motown was again moved to Republic Corps, another label group also formed in 2024 by UMG, consisting of labels belonging to Republic Records. Over the course of its history, the Motown Corporation has owned or distributed more than 45 labels in varying genres. Label code: LC 0881 or LC 00881 45 RPM catalog number, date and label Identification: 1000 through 1010 (1960–1961): pink label. 1011 and higher (1961 forward): blue label.