One of the things that was really affecting Rough Trade was the " Contracts " issue. Because Rough Trade were not like the big corporations trapping artist with a contract this meant that they had the freedom once they got big and started selling loads of records they would just leave Rough Trade for a bigger company. This was frustrating for Rough Trade because there artist were leaving before they could nail a number 1 in the charts.
In 1982 Rough Trade wanted to be more organised because they were becoming more of a known company so they hired an accountant because none of the people at their were business minded they just cared about the music. But this backfired and allmost made the company go bust which allmost closed the shop this then caused tension within Rough Trade and caused a rift between the distribution side of Rough Trade and Record label. Distribution became very powerfull because it acounted for 90% of Rough Trade.
Rough Trades ideology from the very beginning was all about the music and giving unkown artist a chance to become something challenging the majour record labels ideology of just to make profit. However Rough Trade finally started putting artist on contracts so that they couldnt just up and leave them whenever they wanted, they had learned from that mistake in the past. Also making money has become important to Rough Trade.
When Rough Trade found out about the Smiths it was like a breath of fresh air because they were something new and they knew this. The introduction of The Smiths brought Rough Trade great sucess and also brought the music industry something new. The Smiths introduced Indie music which has become massive biggest thing since Punk music and Rough Trade were reaping the rewards. The Smiths were on a contract so they couldnt just leave Rough Trade and go to another record label.
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