CD (and vinyl) Info and Sources

wwkirk

Divine
At this point, over 90% of the music content I have I first obtained digitally. The remainder came on CDs, which naturally I digitized in the usual manner. (I don't have any vinyl whatsoever.) But in spite of digital dominance, I still find myself occasionally purchasing CDs. Sometimes to take advantage of a bargain, multi-album collection, sometimes because the music in question isn't available at a reasonable price in digital format. In one instance I actually opted for the CD version when I couldn't assure myself that the digital offerings corresponded to the specific release I was interested in.

The two best databases I know of for information on all aspects of CDs (and vinyl), such as track listings, personnel (both artistic and others), packaging artwork, differences among, and dates of, the various releases, etc. are:


and


There is a lot of overlap between them. Between them, you can find out for example, who was the singer on a particular track when it is not mentioned on the CD.

I should mention that most of the time when I consult these sites, it's not for a CD. Well, not directly. But it so happens that most of the music I listen to had been previously released on a CD before it became available digitally.

My impression is that AllMusic is more sophisticated. It has both in-house and user reviews for many, many releases. However, a central aspect of Discogs is that it is a place to buy and sell CDs and records.

Today I made my first purchase at Discogs because there was a comfortably priced offer for a CD set I was interested in. Amazon was absurd. Ebay was an option, but I thought that since Discogs caters to a specialty consumer base, a high rating for a seller there should count for a lot.
 

wwkirk

Divine
oday I made my first purchase at Discogs because there was a comfortably priced offer for a CD set I was interested in. Amazon was absurd. Ebay was an option, but I thought that since Discogs caters to a specialty consumer base, a high rating for a seller there should count for a lot.
Already shipped. :cool:
 
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