Record Collecting
Resource Guide
General Information | History and Preservation of Vinyl | Buying, Selling and Appraising Records | Discographies, Record Labels and Catalogging
Introduction
This resource guide is for young adults - namely the iPod generation - new to the hobby of record collecting. The websites below were chosen for their breadth and depth of coverage of the hobby of record collecting. These websites give great detailed information about album cover art, vinyl's role in music history, buying, selling, and preserving "long play" records (LPs), and much, much more!
Key Search Terms:
Vinyl, LP, record collecting, records, discography, album labels, album art, album covers, buying and selling records, discography, 78s, picture discs.
General Information
The following websites are a great place to start for young adults just starting their own record collections. Learn about what vinyl is, how much it is worth and information about famous albums and album cover art. The sites below touch upon all sorts of details the curious record collector may want to learn about.
Record Collector's Guild
http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/This website contains an expansive amount of information on record collecting covering topics such as historic and controversial album covers, history of vinyl records from World War II to the present day, appraisal and care of records, and finding, grading and insuring records. This site also contains links to organizations and clubs devoted to record collecting, and a listing of record stores by state. For those new to record collecting, knowledge of important words and definitions related to the hobby is beneficial; thus the Record Collector's Guild's encyclopedia is great vocabulary builder with over 126 terms in their online volume.
Record Collecting Resources
http://www.helsinki.fi/~tuschano/records/This website is a massive list of annotations of record collecting information on the web. It includes links to individual collectors' sites and links to collectors' associations and magazines. If you are looking for books on record collecting that you can get at the library, check out the link on publishers and vendors of collecting-related books. Great links to discographies, format-specific sites and cataloguing programs. Please note that while this website is comprehensive, it was last updated in December of 2004.
Squidoo DIY: Learn all about collecting Vinyl Records and the Superior Sound of Vinyl
http://www.squidoo.com/collectingvinylrecordsThis personal webpage from Robert Benson, the creator of collectingvinylrecords.com, includes videos of how vinyl is made as well as those from individual collectors. Great links to record-related books in print and articles on record collecting.
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/A listing of Rolling Stone Magazine's well-known 500 greatest albums of all time list, with links to each album, a link to listen to the album, and the option to download the CD or to buy the album via Rhino.com.
The 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
http://musicchain.net/entry/1001-Albums-You-Must-Hear-Before-You-DieInspired by the book of the same name, this website includes information about the "the best, the most important, and most influential pop albums from 1955 through 2003." Selected albums have links to listen to their content as well as track lists. The list is broken down by decade, and included with each entry are production details and credits, as reproductions of original album cover art, plus an authoritative description of each album's importance and influence.
History and Preservation of Vinyl
It is important for new collectors to learn about how to take care of their records. The links below discuss how to store, clean and care for vinyl. Record albums are full of history, so it is imperative to preserve the history through the preservation of albums. To learn more about the history behind certain albums and artists, see the links below.
Vinyl Record Day
http://www.vinylrecordday.com/Vinyl Record Day (VRD) is the website for its nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the cultural influence of vinyl. This website focuses on the conservation of the cultural influences of vinyl, the recordings and the cover art of vinyl, and information on how vinyl has influenced fashion, lifestyles, and social values. Includes links to independent record stores throughout the United States.
Vinyl Record Collectors
http://www.vinyl-record-collectors.net/For young adults that want to learn about the history of vinyl, this site contains informative and educational content about inventors of vinyl, record producers, and recording industries (e.g., HMV, Columbia, Victor, and RCA).
Buying, Selling and Appraising Records
Many young collectors find record collecting an investment. An individual can buy several records and accumulate more music for the price of one album off iTunes. Below are links to several sites where one can buy and/or sell records. Or, if you want to know how much your collection is worth, check out the sites below.
Popsike.com (Recommended off the Record Collector's Guild)
http://www.popsike.com/For young adults interested in valuing and appraising their record collection, online price guides are a useful tool. This site captures the results of auctions from eBay and creates a listing of a records estimated value. In their own words: "We are providing an archive of past auctions. Most of the records have been auctioned at eBay, certainly the largest auction house for rare vinyl records. At popsike.com, you can check the final auction price that a certain record has brought."
KIX Software: Home of Music Catalogue Master
http://kixsoftware.com/vinylresources.htmlKIX software's comprehensive site includes information on record collecting publications, type-specific collections (such as information about records known as "78s"), other vinyl collectors' links, and Collectors' Associations pages.
Collecting Vinyl Records
http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com/This site is another creation of Robert Benson, the designer of http://www.squidoo.com/collectingvinylrecords/ and author of "The Fascinating Hobby of Vinyl Record Collecting." This site includes links on where to purchase records, how to transfer vinyl to CD, links to record appraisals, information for all vinyl collectors, info about newsgroups, dealers, collectors, FAQs, cleaning and preserving records.
Discographies, Record Labels and Catalogging
Many young record collectors need to learn how to have a discerning eye when it comes to buying and selling records. Records are organized by discographies which contain detailed information about when records were produced, released and reissued. Knowing this information is important if you are trying to collect within a certain genre (jazz, rock, classical, etc) or pressing (first pressing, second pressing, reissues, etc).
Allrecordlabels.com
http://78rpmrecord.com/This site is a comprehensive guide of discographies and references on record collecting. Check out the 'selected major discographies and references' link. Additional links include buying and selling 78s, repair and cleaning of 78s, information on record labels and history, and research and major discography repositories. This is a helpful site for young collectors so they can learn about artist album listings plus album issues and reissues.
Discogs.com
http://www.discogs.com/Discogs.com is a community-built database of music information. Discogs.com aims to be a site with a discorgraphy of all labels, all artists, all cross-referenced. This is a great website for new collectors to learn about record catalog numbers and when albums were released and reissued. For young collectors who are buying and selling vinyl, this comprehensive discography is an extremely helpful tool to know exactly what you're getting when you buy as well as knowing what album issue you're seling.
This website was created for LIS 5603: Introduction to Information Services by Lindy Brown, MLIS student at Florida State University.