Motown redirects here. For the city, see Detroit, Michigan.

Motown Records
Parent company	Universal Music Group
Founded	January 12, 1959
Founder(s)	Berry Gordy, Jr.
Distributing label	Universal Motown Records Group (U.S.)
Genre(s)	R&B/soul, pop music, hip hop
Country	United States
Web address	http://www.motown.com/

Motown Records, Inc., also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label originally based out of Detroit, Michigan ("Motor City"), where it achieved widespread international success. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as the first record label owned by an African-American and primarily featuring African-American artists to regularly achieve crossover success and have a widespread, lasting effect on the music industry.

Incorporated on January 12 1959 by Berry Gordy, Jr. as Tamla Records, Motown has, over the course of its history, owned or distributed releases from more than 45 subsidiaries in varying genres, although it is most famous for its releases in the musical genres of R&B, pop, and soul music. Motown left Detroit for Los Angeles in 1972, and remained an independent company until 1988, when Gordy sold the company to MCA. Now headquartered in New York City, Motown Records is today a subsidiary of the Universal Motown Records Group, itself a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

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