Each and every one of those labels got bought out.
Barry Gordy basically got tired of the music industry and wanted to make his way into Hollywood doing movies. It was basically "We'll let you do your movies but we want your catalogues and artists in exchange." Gordy made a mint off of that cause even in the event that his movie production didn't last (it didn't) they gave him a good chunk of cash to keep him comfortable. Sad.
Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert helped Terry and Jimmy start up Perspective Records. A&M Records were BIG in the late 70s to early 90s..Look up the artists they had. They were forcefully bought out by Polygram aka UMG in the 90s which meant Perspective was folded up and made defunct.
Philadelphia International was bought out by Sony and Huff/Gamble just use PIR to handle licensing of their music. That's it.
This music shyt is serious..Those companies mentioned above have catalogues of music worth millions upon millions of dollars and in this business, if you have a Motown or something of the like.. You have guaranteed generational income. Black folks ARE not allowed to have that in the music industry amongst other things. Period. My uncle told me about how CBS records would use mafia dudes to scare/beat up black artists to make them compliant back in the day or they'd cut a massive check to get us to turn over masters and shyt.
All of those players were businessmen who sold their assets to cash out personally.
A&M (Alpert & Moss) sold to Polygram for a total of $500 million dollars.
Gordy sold the Motown label too early. He sold it to a venture capital group for $60 million(!), and that group
then flipped it and sold it to Polygram for $300 million, at about the same time they bought A&M.
Gordy held on to the valuable Jobete publishing catalogue much longer. By 2004, EMI paid him over $200 million for the catalogue.
But Berry Gordy is now 87 years old. If we desire "uplifting" Black music, then there should be enterprising Black twenty-somethings building new businesses to meet the demand.
We shouldn't be relying on Black octogenerians to "stay in the game," or white execs to nurture
Black creativity.
