7 ms·

Discogs Turns Record Collectors’ Obsessions into Big Business

41 points by nichodges 11y ago

atwebb 11y ago
The site has gotten so much better over the years, adding the ability to have shipping at checkout was a major hurdle. It has seemed like they've really been investing in development over the past 2-3 years. Everything was a bit stale and then really started to show signs of life. A lot of it's is like Wiki since it's user submitted and curated but man if it isn't slicker than other options. It also destroyed early sites like GEMM. I've always been a big fan of their transparency and support as well, you can get downloads of the entire database, freely available, on a regular basis with no hassle. They know it's not about the data, but the community and experience. Weird seeing them on HN, seems like 10 year old, moderately profitable companies aren't as common around here.
- laveur 11y ago
  Agreed! As an aspiring DJ this site is essential part of anyones work flow. A lot of the older music from the early days of the rave seen is not available in digital format and no longer being pressed into new records. So its the only place you can really find and buy it now.
  - thirdsun 11y ago
    Not the rave scene for me, but over the last few years I've really gotten into obscure soul, funk, disco and early electronica rarities and Discogs has always been an absolutely essential tool to track things. It led me so deep into the rabbit hole that I need to get a decent turntable to digitalize a lot of releases - I maintain a fairly large lossless digital collection, but these days I find more and more new releases that aren't available digitally, even including last resorts like what.cd. And then there's the old, out of print stuff - however I'm glad that a bunch of very good re-issue labels like Numero Group, Light In The Attic or Music From Memory made it their mission to bring those forgotten gems back to life.
- arawde 11y ago
  I've only discovered Discogs recently but I absolutely love it, strictly for tagging data. I can figure out which copies of songs I have and tag them appropriately, satisfying my slight OCD. From what I've seen over the 2 years or so I've used it, I agree that they have gotten better. I've yet to make any purchases through the site, but knowing that I can is just another reason to use it.
agumonkey 11y ago
I never looked at this side of the website, but for the curious 'musician' (who player where) it's a goldmine of information. The CD booklet Google.
allcentury 11y ago
I've been a heavy user of discogs since 2004. I've always been obsessed with producers and songwriters, ie the people who actually write the music I love. It's allowed me to discover alias of my favorite producers and to me that is invaluable.
dopamean 11y ago
Neat writeup. Discogs is great. I've bought a ton of records there and plan to continue to.
mambodog 11y ago
Discogs provides dumps of the database[1] which you can load up and do some interesting queries on yourself. For example, for some genres (especially electronic/dance stuff) you can do some interesting related artist suggestion by examining links through niche record labels (which tend to host similar artists). No ML required :) [1] http://data.discogs.com/ http://data.discogs.com/

41 points by nichodges 11y ago

The site has gotten so much better over the years, adding the ability to have shipping at checkout was a major hurdle. It has seemed like they've really been investing in development over the past 2-3 years. Everything was a bit stale and then really started to show signs of life. A lot of it's is like Wiki since it's user submitted and curated but man if it isn't slicker than other options. It also destroyed early sites like GEMM. I've always been a big fan of their transparency and support as well, you can get downloads of the entire database, freely available, on a regular basis with no hassle. They know it's not about the data, but the community and experience. Weird seeing them on HN, seems like 10 year old, moderately profitable companies aren't as common around here.

laveur 11y ago
Agreed! As an aspiring DJ this site is essential part of anyones work flow. A lot of the older music from the early days of the rave seen is not available in digital format and no longer being pressed into new records. So its the only place you can really find and buy it now.
- thirdsun 11y ago
  Not the rave scene for me, but over the last few years I've really gotten into obscure soul, funk, disco and early electronica rarities and Discogs has always been an absolutely essential tool to track things. It led me so deep into the rabbit hole that I need to get a decent turntable to digitalize a lot of releases - I maintain a fairly large lossless digital collection, but these days I find more and more new releases that aren't available digitally, even including last resorts like what.cd. And then there's the old, out of print stuff - however I'm glad that a bunch of very good re-issue labels like Numero Group, Light In The Attic or Music From Memory made it their mission to bring those forgotten gems back to life.
arawde 11y ago
I've only discovered Discogs recently but I absolutely love it, strictly for tagging data. I can figure out which copies of songs I have and tag them appropriately, satisfying my slight OCD. From what I've seen over the 2 years or so I've used it, I agree that they have gotten better. I've yet to make any purchases through the site, but knowing that I can is just another reason to use it.

agumonkey 11y ago

I never looked at this side of the website, but for the curious 'musician' (who player where) it's a goldmine of information. The CD booklet Google.

allcentury 11y ago

I've been a heavy user of discogs since 2004. I've always been obsessed with producers and songwriters, ie the people who actually write the music I love. It's allowed me to discover alias of my favorite producers and to me that is invaluable.

dopamean 11y ago

Neat writeup. Discogs is great. I've bought a ton of records there and plan to continue to.

mambodog 11y ago

Discogs provides dumps of the database[1] which you can load up and do some interesting queries on yourself. For example, for some genres (especially electronic/dance stuff) you can do some interesting related artist suggestion by examining links through niche record labels (which tend to host similar artists). No ML required :) [1] http://data.discogs.com/ http://data.discogs.com/