In the last few years before Motown’s absorption into the Universal Music Group, which occurred in December of 1998, huge stars were added to the label, including Erykah Badu and Brian Mcknight. While the idea to close the label was discussed, Universal decided to restructure it and bring in a new label head, Kedar Massenburg. Most of the original artists of Motown left for other major labels like RCA and Atlantic Records, although almost all of them returned for brief stints, to record one-off albums or tracks with Motown.

In 2005, Motown was united with Universal to create Universal Motown Records, which signed a variety of new artists from a wide range of genres. Ryan Leslie, Melanie Fiona, Four Year Strong, and Forever the Sickest Kicks are just some of the successful groups to come out of this merged label.

the year 2011 saw the label revert back to the name Motown Records and operate as a revitalized entity in The Island Def Jam Music Group. Until 2018, a number of switches and changes occurred, until Motown settled as a subsidiary of the famous Capitol Records. Towards the end of 2018, Motown celebrated it’s 60th Anniversary and began re-releasing numerous albums of the original catalog, to honor its roots.