The Worst Record Deal In History (Jackson 5)

the music industry is known these days for having some questionable ethics,
from taking advantage to young talent from poorer backgrounds to
outright not paying artists what they are owed, record labels have
always been willing to do whatever it takes to increase the size of their
multi billion dollar empires.

But what is the worst record deal in history?
There are so many to choose from, but I think the Jackson 5 may have received the absolute roughest deal since the start of the modern music industry.

The Jackson 5 made millions for Motown in the early 1970s,
and their relentless work ethic meant that they managed to release 3 albums in a single year.

Unfortunately, they were taken advantage of pretty severely. They only earned a reported 2.7 to 2.8% of their
royalties from record sales.

Not only that, but they weren't even able to retain creative control over what music they were recording. Part of why they got such a rough deal is because a majority of their output were songs written by Motown's writing team themselves, or were cover songs. This meant the group weren't receiving any songwriter's credits from their music.

In 1975, the Jackson five announced they were leaving Motown to move to epic records at a press conference in new york.
This was a huge step up financially for them, with a reported 10 times higher royalty rate being offered by epic.

Unfortunately for the five, Motown hit them with a breach of contract suit, and won the rights
to the name "the Jackson five". Motown did let them record for epic under a different name though.
The group changed their name to the Jacksons in 1976 as a result.

[ladiorange]

So this is in contrast to the boy who played young Michael Jackson. They heard his singing voice, cast him as young simba singing voice, he negotiated a cut that he still receives

[coursecorrection]

Motown would release unreleased MJ material every time he released a new project on Epic so they were able to take advantage of his rising solo star.

[coursecorrection]

Michael Jackson Inc is a book that lays out a lot of the behind the scenes business deals

[coursecorrection]

Such a rough deal. And when they left, they couldn’t even profit from it. Kids working all of the time. Being charged for hundreds of songs that were never released