Editing Motown (section)

===Los Angeles: 1972–1998===
After the songwriting trio [[Holland–Dozier–Holland]] left the label in 1967 over royalty-payment disputes, Norman Whitfield became the company's top producer, turning out hits for the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Rare Earth. In the meantime Berry Gordy established Motown Productions, a television subsidiary which produced TV specials for the Motown artists, including ''[[TCB (TV program)|TCB]]'', with Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations, ''[[Diana!]]'' with Diana Ross, and ''[[Goin' Back to Indiana]]'' with [[the Jackson 5]]. The company loosened its production rules, allowing some of its longtime artists the opportunity to write and produce more of their own material. This resulted in the recordings of successful and critically acclaimed albums such as [[Marvin Gaye]]'s ''[[What's Going On (Marvin Gaye album)|What's Going On]]'' (1971) and ''[[Let's Get it On]]'' (1973), and [[Stevie Wonder]]'s ''[[Music of My Mind]]'' (1972), ''[[Talking Book]]'' (1972), and ''[[Innervisions]]'' (1973).

Motown had established branch offices in both New York City and Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, and by 1969 had begun gradually moving more of its operations to Los Angeles. On June{{nbsp}}14, 1972, the company announced it was moving all of its operations to Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thurston |first1=Chuck |title=Motown Moving to California |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press/47272468/ |work=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=June 15, 1972 |page=A3 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> A number of artists moved with the label, among them [[Martha Reeves]], the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips and many of the [[Funk Brothers]] studio band, while others stayed behind in Detroit or left the company for other reasons. By re-locating, Motown aimed chiefly to branch out into the motion-picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit-vehicles for [[Diana Ross]]: the [[Billie Holiday]] biographical film ''[[Lady Sings the Blues (film)|Lady Sings the Blues]]'' (1972), and ''[[Mahogany (film)|Mahogany]]'' (1975). Other Motown films would include ''[[Scott Joplin (film)|Scott Joplin]]'' (1977), ''[[Thank God It's Friday (film)|Thank God It's Friday]]'' (1978), ''[[The Wiz (film)|The Wiz]]'' (1978) and ''[[The Last Dragon]]'' (1985). [[Ewart Abner]], who had been associated with Motown since the 1960s, became its president in 1973.

John McClain, an [[A&M Records]] executive, opined that Motown leaving its birth city marked a decline in the label's quality. "Something happened when [Motown] left Detroit and came to [Los Angeles]," he said. "They quit being innovators and started following trends. Before, Berry had a much more hands-on approach. And maybe you lose some of your desire after you get to a certain level financially."<ref>{{cite news |last=Grein |first=Paul |date=1988-06-11 |title=The End of an Era: Expected Sale of the Legendary Motown Label Stirs Some Bittersweet Emotions  |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-11-ca-4214-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=2023-01-29}}</ref>

By the 1970s, the Motown "hit factory" had become a target of a backlash from some fans of rock music. Record producer [[Pete Waterman]] recalls of this period: "I was a DJ for years and I worked for Motown – the press at the time, papers like ''[[NME]]'', used to call it Toytown. When I DJ'd on the [[Polytechnic (United Kingdom)|Poly]] circuit, the students wanted me to play [[Spooky Tooth]] and [[Velvet Underground]]. Things don't change. Nowadays, of course, Motown is hip."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s49QgtwybqUC&q=motown+toytown&pg=PT138|title=The Nineties: What the F**ck Was That All About?|first=John|last=Robb|date=October 31, 2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781409034421|access-date=March 9, 2019|via=Google Books|archive-date=December 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214225942/https://books.google.com/books?id=s49QgtwybqUC&q=motown+toytown&pg=PT138|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite losing Holland–Dozier–Holland, Norman Whitfield, and some of its other hitmakers by 1975, Motown still had a number of successful artists during the 1970s and 1980s, including [[Lionel Richie]] and the [[Commodores]], [[Rick James]], [[Teena Marie]], the [[Dazz Band]], [[Jose Feliciano]] and [[DeBarge]]. By the mid-1980s, Motown had started losing money, and Berry Gordy sold his ownership in Motown to [[MCA Records]] (which began a North American distribution deal with the label in 1983) and Boston Ventures in June 1988 for $61 million. In 1989, Gordy sold the Motown Productions TV/film operations to Motown executive [[Suzanne de Passe]], who renamed the company [[de Passe Entertainment]] and continues to run it {{As of|2018|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.depassejones.com/company|title=Company – De Passe Jones Entertainment|website=Home – De Passe Jones Entertainment|access-date=March 9, 2019|archive-date=May 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508193537/https://www.depassejones.com/company|url-status=live}}</ref> Gordy continued to retain the Jobete music publishing catalog, selling it separately to [[EMI Music Publishing]] in parts between 1997 and 2004.<ref>{{Cite magazine| title = EMI Completes Acquisition of Jobete Catalog| magazine = Billboard| access-date = 2020-12-30| url = https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/1440901/emi-completes-acquisition-of-jobete-catalog|first=Lars |last=Brandle|date=March 31, 2004 |archive-date = January 28, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210128085829/https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/1440901/emi-completes-acquisition-of-jobete-catalog| url-status = live}}</ref> It is currently owned by [[Sony Music Publishing]] (Sony/ATV until 2021) through the acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2012 (as a leader of the consortium and eventually assigned full ownership in 2018).

During the 1990s, Motown was home to successful recording artists such as [[Boyz II Men]] and [[Johnny Gill]], although the company itself remained in a state of turmoil. MCA appointed a series of executives to run the company, beginning with Berry Gordy's immediate successor, [[Jheryl Busby]]. Busby quarreled with MCA, alleging that the company did not give Motown's product adequate attention or promotion. In 1991, Motown sued MCA to have its distribution deal with the company terminated, and began releasing its product through [[PolyGram]]. PolyGram purchased Motown from Boston Ventures three years later.

In 1994, Busby was replaced by [[Andre Harrell]], the entrepreneur behind [[Uptown Records]]. Harrell served as Motown's CEO for just under two years, leaving the company after receiving bad publicity for being inefficient. Danny Goldberg, who ran PolyGram's Mercury Records group, assumed control of Motown, and [[George Jackson (producer)|George Jackson]] served as president.