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Discogs
Website and database devoted to audio recordings

Discogs is an online database and marketplace for audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in The New York Times as "Wikipedia-like", and users can purchase vinyl records, CDs, or cassette tapes from online sellers. While the site was originally created with the goal of becoming the largest online database of electronic music, it now includes releases in all genres and on all formats. By 2015, it had a new goal: that of "cataloging every single piece of physical music ever created." As of 2025, its database contains over 18 million user-submitted album listings.

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History

Discogs was started in 2000 by Kevin Lewandowski who worked as a programmer at Intel.67 It was originally started from a computer in Lewandowski's closet and was limited to electronic music. By 2015, Discogs had 37 employees, 3 million users, and a monthly traffic of 20 million visits.8

In 2005, Discogs launched a marketplace where users can buy and sell albums.9 The Discogs Marketplace is modeled similar to Amazon and eBay, where sellers offer items for sale and a fee is charged on the sold item.10 Its album listings are filterable by the country they ship from, format, currency, genre, style, format description, media condition, year released, seller name, and whether the buyer is invited to "make an offer."

In July 2007, a new subscription-based system for sellers was introduced on the site, called Market Price History. It gave premium users access to the past price items that were sold for up to 12 months ago by previous sellers who had sold exactly the same release (though 60 days of information was free). At the same time, the US$12 per year charge for advanced subscriptions was abolished, as it was felt that the extra features should be made available to all subscribers, now that a different revenue stream had been found from sellers and purchasers. Later that year, all paid access features were discarded and full use of the site became free of charge, allowing all users to view the full 12-month Market Price History of each item.11

See also

References

  1. Sisario, Ben (December 29, 2015). "Discogs Turns Record Collectors' Obsessions Into Big Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/media/discogs-turns-record-collectors-obsessions-into-big-business.html ↩

  2. Saunders, Luke (September 8, 2021). "Discogs: what is it, where it came from, and how to use it". Happy Mag. Retrieved October 8, 2019. https://happymag.tv/discogs-what-is-it-where-it-came-from-and-how-to-use-it/ ↩

  3. Sisario, Ben (December 29, 2015). "Discogs Turns Record Collectors' Obsessions Into Big Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/media/discogs-turns-record-collectors-obsessions-into-big-business.html ↩

  4. Lewandowski, Kevin (March 4, 2016). "Guest Column - How Discogs Organised the World's Record Collection". Q the Music. Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20170420140632/http://www.qthemusic.com/14459/guest-column-how-discogs-organised-the-worlds-record-collection/ ↩

  5. "Find Music on Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved February 27, 2025. https://www.discogs.com/search ↩

  6. Carnes, Richard (March 26, 2010). "Discogs: Vinyl revolution". Resident Advisor. Retrieved December 13, 2023. It took about six months working nights and weekends on Discogs, and I launched it in November 2000. https://ra.co/features/1166 ↩

  7. Sisario, Ben (December 29, 2015). "Discogs Turns Record Collectors' Obsessions Into Big Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/media/discogs-turns-record-collectors-obsessions-into-big-business.html ↩

  8. Sisario, Ben (December 29, 2015). "Discogs Turns Record Collectors' Obsessions Into Big Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/media/discogs-turns-record-collectors-obsessions-into-big-business.html ↩

  9. Garber, David (February 26, 2015). "How Discogs Dragged Record Collecting Into the 21st Century". Vice. Retrieved March 13, 2022. https://www.vice.com/en/article/discogs-interview-vinyl-records-marketplace/ ↩

  10. Savage, Mark (May 2, 2018). "Vinyl collectors spent millions on Discogs last year". BBC News. Archived from the original on May 2, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43973448 ↩

  11. Saunders, Luke (September 8, 2021). "Discogs: what is it, where it came from, and how to use it". Happy Mag. Retrieved October 8, 2019. https://happymag.tv/discogs-what-is-it-where-it-came-from-and-how-to-use-it/ ↩