Motown

The legendary Motown label was founded on January 12, 1959 and incorporated as Motown Recording Corporation on April 14, 1960 by Berry Gordy, Jr., who merged his two successful imprints, 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 Motown (2)
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 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 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.