Thoughts/Ideas for a Motown Media Empire?

Yeah, that's still been tricking me, especially since I'm not sure how it would kick off with what kind of "purchase" Berry Gordy could or would make, if at all possible. My best guess is either just acquiring a major stake in the company somehow, making a deal with Kerkorian in company control, or somehow getting a "merger" together.

How it goes from there can be tricky too, since, at least at this point in research, I'm not too sure what Gordy's management could be like or who he'd be able to appoint that could help the studio get off the ground again. I could imagine at least some improvements over our timeline automatically with a.) The head at least being interested in actually making movies rather than trying to gut what's there and focusing on hotels, b.) Some possible new and fresh perspectives depending on whom he appoints, c.) A more genuine push into making TV (As Motown was already doing with its TV specials and series, which they originally created Motown Productions to do), and d.) Some possible synergy between MGM Records and Motown Records.

Admittedly though, all of this pretty loose speculation, but it's probably the best way to kill two birds with one stone since I'm not too sure what else I could do for an internally-driven PoD for either Motown or MGM (At least, without basically making two separate PoDs and/or trying to make two timelines which cover the same track of time). Plus, the idea of these two companies coming together and the possible movies they could make is really interesting to me, regardless of realism, lol


From what research I've done, I'm admittedly not sure what the difference between Motown's three main labels (Motown, Tamla, and Gordy) were, outside of certain business reasons (Radio wanting different labels, slightly different appeals, not wanting somewhat similar artists to compete, etc.). But yeah, Motown expanding beyond their original sound is real interesting to me too, and probably necessary if they'd want to continue on as their own company. Partnering/joining with MGM Records could help them get their foot in the door with different sounds too, assuming I go with the MGM joining idea.

The only thing I wonder about is whether they can avoid the same decline as happened in our timeline. While I'm still researching a lot of this, much of the decline of Motown, as it looks to me, came from several factors, including the competition from other labels that added black music to their rosters, an inability to go on new sounds or take in new artists, and arguably Berry Gordy himself, tragically and ironically, as his insistence on creative control and avoiding certain social or political topics (Alongside several instances of unfair royalties that sent off HDH and others) possibly contributed to this stagnation (It would push the Jackson 5 to move to a new label in 1975). Maybe the era of "New Hollywood" could influence him to allow more creative control and sounds in Motown?


That focus on superstars is arguably another point as well. And yeah, a move to capitalize on disco could work, although it may bite them in the butt if disco ends up with the same backlash it did in our timeline. It would definitely do them good to have wider or more evolved genres, though. Edwin Starr had left the label by that point, aparently, as "Eye-to-Eye" was apparently distributed by 20th Century Fox Records.
Right. Perhaps an deal with Kirk could work.
 
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