Dance Mania Founder Ray Barney talks doing music business with integrity, the power of mixtapes & history behind his iconic label for Ep. 28 of Club Management
I was honored to sit down for a chat with Ray Barney for episode 28 of my podcast Club Management. Ray is the founder of legendary Chicago House Music label Dance Mania Records.
From 1986 to 1999 Dance Mania pioneered an incredible moment in Chicago House history. It saw a ton of milestones throughout its existence, releasing everything from Classic House, Trax, and Hip House, but the label hit a sweet spot when the dawn of Ghetto House emerged in 1994.
Dance Mania cultivated the careers of some of the most influential producers and DJ's in House music history like the incredible DJ DEEON, Waxmaster, Eric Martin, DJ Funk, Traxman, and Parris Mitchell.
Ray has been in the music business for a long time too. His father founded a distribution business called Barney’s One Stop Records in the early ’60s. Ray continued to follow in his dad’s footsteps when he took over the shop in the ’80s, and the rest was history.
Barney’s One Stop Records picture via Soul Source
In this episode, Ray and Shannon chat about the importance of doing music business with integrity, the power of using mixtapes as promotion tools, and Ray details the history behind his iconic label and how it all began!
Ray Barney’s basement picture via Soul Source