Barry Shein

Barry Shein
Name	Barry Shein
Birth date	1948
Birth place	United States
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Publisher, Archivist

Barry Shein was an American entrepreneur and collector best known for founding the magazine and mail-order service that became a major source for independent music and recordings in the 1970s and 1980s. He built a network that linked small labels, regional distributors, and collectors, influencing the dissemination of jazz, blues, folk music, and early electronic music in the United States and abroad. His activities connected cultural institutions, archives, and private collectors with commercial platforms and scholarly repositories.

Early life and education

Shein grew up in a postwar American context amidst the cultural currents of New York City, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, where local scenes around venues such as the Village Vanguard, Cafe Wha?, and Fillmore West shaped his interests. He attended programs that intersected with institutions like Columbia University, Harvard University, and New York University and was influenced by collections at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and New York Public Library. Early exposure to record labels including RCA Victor, Columbia Records, Blue Note Records, and Atlantic Records informed his later curatorial and retail practices. His formative years coincided with landmark events such as the Newport Jazz Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Monterey Pop Festival, and the rise of independent presses like Rolling Stone, DownBeat, and Mojo.

Career

Shein founded and operated a mail-order and catalog enterprise that interacted with a wide array of actors in the music and media ecosystems: independent labels such as Verve Records, Chess Records, Sun Records, Sub Pop, and Rough Trade; distributors like Rediffusion, EMI, and Warner Bros. Records; and retail chains from Tower Records to specialty shops in Melbourne, London, and Tokyo. His catalogs circulated among subscribers who also followed periodicals and broadcasters such as Billboard, NME, Melody Maker, BBC Radio 1, and WNYC. Shein negotiated licensing and reissue arrangements that involved archives and rights holders including the Library of Congress Packard Campus, Smithsonian Folkways, Document Records, and private estates associated with artists represented by Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and BMG Rights Management.

He worked with curators, ethnomusicologists, and scholars connected to Berklee College of Music, Juilliard School, Smith College, and UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture to document recordings and liner notes, collaborating with figures tied to the Alan Lomax collections, the Ralph Peer legacy, and collectors in the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. Shein’s operations intersected with technological transitions involving formats and standards such as vinyl record, compact disc, cassette tape, and later digital cataloguing systems influenced by MARC standards and initiatives like the Digital Public Library of America.

His network extended to producers and engineers associated with producers like George Martin, Tom Dowd, Sam Phillips, and studios such as Abbey Road Studios, Sun Studio, Capitol Studios, and Electric Lady Studios. Through mail-order distribution, he broadened access to regional traditions spanning Delta blues, Chicago blues, Cajun music, Appalachian folk, and international genres exemplified by Afrobeat, Bossa Nova, Reggae, and Klezmer.

Personal life

Shein’s personal associations linked him with collectors, archivists, and cultural figures active in scenes around Greenwich Village, Haight-Ashbury, SoHo, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He maintained contacts with curators at institutions such as the New-York Historical Society, Museum of Modern Art, The British Library, and Institut National de l'Audiovisuel while participating in conferences hosted by organizations like the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres and the Society for American Music. His contemporaries included independent entrepreneurs who collaborated with labels like Matador Records, Merge Records, Elektra Records, and Island Records.

Legacy and impact

Shein influenced preservation practices and access pathways that benefitted collectors, scholars, and listeners associated with universities and cultural centers including Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, and Oxford University. His efforts anticipated later online marketplaces and platforms influenced by eBay, Discogs, Amazon Music, and streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music by demonstrating demand for curated reissues and archival releases. Institutions that value physical media—museums like the National Museum of American History and libraries including Harvard Library and Bodleian Libraries—recognize the circulation networks he helped shape. His model informed archival digitization projects funded or supported by entities including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and cultural outreach programs tied to the UNESCO conventions on intangible heritage.

Awards and recognition

During his career Shein received acknowledgments from specialist organizations and festivals such as the Association for Recorded Sound Collections awards, honors at specialized fairs like the NAMM Show, and commendations from archival and collector communities including the Music Library Association and regional bodies tied to the Newport Folk Festival and Monterey Jazz Festival. He was noted by periodicals and institutions including Billboard, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian for contributions to reissue practices and collector outreach.

Category:American entrepreneurs Category:Music industry people