Jobete Music Company, Inc. (commonly Jobete) is the music publishing division of Motown Records originally established by Motown founder Berry Gordy, and his wife Raynoma Liles Gordy in Detroit, Michigan. As the publishing arm of Motown, Jobete was responsible for the publishing, administration, and licensing (copyright) of the songwriting output created by Motown’s staff of songwriters, composers, and artists. Over the following decades, Jobete grew into one of the most valuable popular music publishing catalogues in the world, controlling the rights to most of Motown’s best-known songs.[1]
History
Foundation (1959)
Berry Gordy established Jobete Music in 1959 as part of his broader strategy to integrate songwriting, publishing, and recording within his business empire. He incorporated the company in Michigan and moved quickly to register copyrights for songs written by himself and early Motown artists. By the end of the company’s first year, Gordy had applied for copyrights on more than seventy titles. Jobete operated alongside Gordy’s in-house labels, Tamla Records, Motown Records, Gordy Records, Soul Records, and V.I.P. Records. Jobete soon became the primary publisher for the entire Motown catalogue.