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Thank You for 20 Years of Discogs

Discogs turned 20 years old on November 1, 2020. We’re looking back on two decades of music fandom. Thank you to all of the Discogs users for making this site what it is today.

Thank You

“On November 1, Discogs turns 20 years old. I started this as a hobby project to let people edit discographies and create a definitive catalog of recorded music. I didn’t know it would come this far! Back then, the goal was only to catalog electronic music, but based on feedback we started to allow hip-hop, then rock, jazz, then everything.

Looking back on those 20 years, some of my best memories are:

  • The early days of working very closely with contributors in the forums.
  • All of the great music I’ve discovered by digging and exploring Discogs.
  • Hearing directly from people about how important Discogs is to them.
  • Visiting record shops and hearing people talk about Discogs or seeing it on their computers (I shop incognito).

It’s really incredible how far we’ve come. Discogs now has 13 million releases, 7 million artists, and almost 60 million things for sale from 150,000 sellers. And it’s the go-to resource for people that really care about music. None of this would be possible without all of you, whether you’re contributing to the Database, giving suggestions in the forums, or building up your Collections and Wantlists. Thank you, Discogs Community!!”

– Kevin Lewandowski, Founder and CEO

young discogs founder kevin lewandowski working at computer

“I am proud to have been a member of the site since 2002. It’s been incredible to watch Discogs grow and get ever more popular, year after year. I feel truly honored to serve such an amazing community of collectors and music fans, with everyone working together to build and maintain the Database for the benefit of all. I want to send out a big thanks to everyone who has contributed; every edit counts toward making the information about releases, artists, and labels better and more complete. Thank you so much!”

– Nik Kinloch, Chief Database Officer

screenshot of an early email from Kevin Lewandowski introducing the idea of Discogs

“Hey, all! Twenty years of Discogs is an incredible achievement.

I joined the team in 2011 when Discogs already had a solid reputation as a comprehensive and detail-oriented music database powered entirely by community contributions. The ‘V4’ system was humming along, the genre subdomains like ‘rock.discogs.com’ had all been folded into the main site, and still, there was so much to do.

Every day, I am awed and humbled by the dedication and passion of this community of archivists, collectors, and enthusiasts. It’s been a privilege to support you — and to play some small part in connecting people across cultures, oceans, and generations, all through the shared love of music.”

– Jesse Dubay, Principal Engineer

screenshot of the discogs homepage in 2003

“It’s been a wild ride. I can’t believe I thought I’d have like a year’s worth of stuff to add before I was most of the way there. January will be my fifteenth year since joining up and I’ve still got so much more to go!”

– Brent Greissle, Community Engagement Specialist and Diognes_The_Fox

History of Discogs

“On November 1, Discogs turns 20 years old. I started this as a hobby project to let The last time we looked at the history of Discogs was in 2018. Below is a snapshot of our favorite moments over the past 20 years.

Vertical timeline of discogs milestones starting with the launch of the site in 2000 and ending with database statistics in 2020

Site Evolution

Nik Kinloch crafted this amazing time capsule video for Discogss 15th Birthday. While it doesn’t include the most recent changes that occurred in the past five years, it’s still a wonderful trip through the past, especially for users that have been around since the beginning.