I’m Seeing Motown as a Flywheel Too
In my last post I used Goop as an example of ecosystems that grow momentum over time because they’re anchored in a niche, distinctive brand world. Niche meaning specialized. Read that here.
With an ear for hits, Berry Gordy built Motown into an iconic record company. The lore credits its model to the Ford Motor Company assembly line.
It’s another good example of a flywheel. This one is for music artists and strategists alike.
Motown is just so dreamy and glamorous and precise. Berry Gordy, Jr. founded the record company with a goal of producing hits. The lore goes on to say he modeled the process on the Ford assembly line (Britannica). A process for hit-making.
The point is flywheels (blog post).
The label was an ecosystem, keeping all of its production in-house. Vertical integration also applies in the luxury model (blog post). Intentional use of every single detail.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Motown came just as rock-and-roll began to take on a new meaning through pop music and mainstream commercial success. In the U.S., the time period is associated with the rejection of traditional values and new forms of expression (cc: modernism). In 1967, the company was one of ~8 independent labels selling in the $20-$50 million range (Fortune, 1967).
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Let’s take a quick tangent here to talk about stardom and the recording industry (Marshall, 2013). Pop stars are the center of the experience as physical embodiments of glamour. Pop stars as symbols that represent genres, cities, record labels, MEANING (blog post).
These are the elements of the Motown flywheel:
Creative production teams: writers, products, artist development. The goal was to make the best possible songs. Songwriting as the first step.
Scouting artists: Fostering an environment of collaborations.
Quality control: Songs go to market based on a company vote. More lore says these meetings got intense, but helped maintain the Motown standard (Showtime, 2019).
Touring: Live performance as a central tenet of growing a fanbase. Eventually, Motown went on the road.
And with it, Gordy helped develop a regional sound and drive reach of his brand globally.
