Motown Data Initiates Layoffs as Label Reverses Course, Returning to Capitol Music Group

Motown Data has weathered main modifications within the final 12 months, not the least of which embody the exit of chairwoman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam in November, and is now could be planning a restructuring that may deliver it again into the fold of Capitol Music Group. With that, layoffs have been initiated, Selection has confirmed, with some 19 staffers being impacted.

Representatives for Motown/CMG declined to debate personnel issues. 

In an announcement issued on Thursday, first published by Billboard and obtained by Selection, a Motown spokesperson stated: “As Motown returns to the Capitol household, sure positions that had been created after we grew to become a stand-alone label have since grow to be duplicative. These staff are leaving the corporate and our Individuals, Inclusion and Tradition division helps them discover new alternatives — both inside or exterior of UMG.”

Motown is residence to such top-selling rap, hip-hop and R&B acts as Lil Child, Lil Yachty, Migos, Metropolis Ladies, Erykah Badu, Brandy and Ne-Yo. It was began in 1958 by Berry Gordy and went on to form the sound of well-liked music all through the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, and affect virtually the whole lot that got here after. Whereas it began as a standalone label, it’s had a number of company dad and mom inside Common Music Group. Its newest iteration took form in 2014, when Habtemariam took on the twin position of president of Motown alongside along with her government place at Common Music Publishing Group. That very same 12 months, UMG dissolved the Island Def Jam Music Group and moved Motown to Los Angeles to function out of the Capitol Tower.

Habtemariam’s management led to the signing of Motown’s partnership with Atlanta-based High quality Management, which introduced Migos, Lil Child, Lil Yachty, Metropolis Ladies and others to the label. High quality Management was just lately acquired by HYBE America in a $300 million-plus deal although its recordings stay inside the UMG household.

Motown joins a number of media and music firms which have introduced layoffs prior to now few months. Amongst them, Showtime, Amazon, Vox Media and Disney have begun to trim jobs as a response to the financial international local weather, and the challenges plaguing a number of sectors of the market.