Trax Records' week-long turnaround gave Chicago house its first distribution infrastructure but exploited artists

Larry Sherman’s Trax Records could turn a demo tape into a released record in a week because he owned Chicago’s only vinyl pressing plant. He kept costs low by reprocessing old unsold records (‘which is why his records always had the pops and they weren’t like very well pressed’). This speed was structurally important — it gave artists an immediate outlet and created a feedback loop from studio to club. But Sherman signed artists to exploitative contracts — giving $1,000 advances for full ownership of masters, warning that ‘if I can screw you he says I will.’ Artists without money couldn’t afford lawyers, so they signed. This early label/artist power imbalance became a defining grievance in house culture.

Examples

Larry Heard’s ‘Can You Feel It’ (Mr Fingers) went from being rejected (‘there’s no words on it’) to becoming a classic because Marshall Jefferson persuaded Sherman to release it.

Assessment

Describe the Trax Records business model — both what it enabled (speed to market) and what it extracted from artists (contract terms) — and explain why these two aspects are inseparable.