Whoever controls the pressing plant controls a record's release, credit, and terms

Larry Sherman owned both Trax Records and the pressing plant most Chicago house producers relied on, which gave him decisive leverage over their music. Because physical manufacturing was the bottleneck, he could refuse to press a record he didn’t rate (he sat on Move Your Body for eight months) and could press it under whatever name and label he chose. When demand finally forced his hand he pressed it overnight, but credited it to Marshall Jefferson rather than the group On The House, without consent. The transferable concept: in independent music, control of manufacturing translates into control of release timing, artist credit, and commercial terms, a structural vulnerability for artists.

Examples

Sherman dismissed the track (‘this piece of [expletive] isn’t gonna do anything’) and held the $1,500 pressing fee, then, once UK press drove demand, pressed it in a day but under Jefferson’s name, not On The House.

Assessment

Explain how owning both a label and a pressing plant gave Sherman power over producers. Give two concrete ways that power showed up in the Move Your Body release.