A Personal Guide to Record Collecting for Beginners

Why Should I Collect Records?

Think about whether you’re buying to listen, buying to collect, buying to archive, or buying to make your place feel more at home. Record collecting appeals to everyone from true audiophiles to die hard collectors to the aspiring beginner. If you’re curious about what bracket you might fall into, this handy guide can help.

Remember, there are no wrong answers here, just more records to collect.

What Gear Do I Need For Record Collecting?

To play records, you’ll need a turntable as the central component, along with a few other essential pieces of equipment. You can either buy a ready-to-play unit or build your setup as you go. Here’s a list of the basic gear you need:

Turntable: This is the primary device that plays vinyl records. Turntables come in various types, including belt-drive and direct-drive. Choose a turntable that suits your preferences and budget.

Phono Preamp: Most turntables require a phono preamp to amplify the low-level signal produced by the stylus on the record. Some turntables have a built-in preamp, but others may require an external one.

Amplifier: Connect the output from the phono preamp to an amplifier or receiver. The amplifier amplifies the signal to a level that can drive your speakers. (Use audio cables (typically RCA cables) to connect the output of the phono preamp to the input of the amplifier.)

Speakers: Choose speakers that are suitable for the size of your room and your listening preferences. Bookshelf speakers or floor-standing speakers are commonly used with turntable setups. (Ensure you have the appropriate cables to connect your amplifier or receiver to your speakers.)

Records: You’ll need a collection of vinyl records to play. Start with the classics: Begin your collection with essential albums from iconic artists and genres that interest you. Look for popular titles that are widely available and well-regarded by music enthusiasts.

Need a place to start? Check out Discogs Gear And Accessories.

Where Should I Buy Records?

Records are sold in a variety of places, from local garage sales to thrift stores to department stores to record stores. And that’s not including the Internet. If you’re looking to buy records online, Discogs.com has most everything you need. If you’re a fan of a band and looking to pre order their latest vinyl though, it’s best to follow the bands and record labels you’re into on social media and stay updated on their latest releases, pre orders, and old stock.

How Do I Find Records on Discogs?

The search option is at the top left of each Discogs page. Simply enter the word(s) you would like to search for and then hit return/enter on your keyboard. This will search all releases, artists, and labels.

The default search should be set to All / Everything, but notice that your search results include tabs for Release, Master Release, Artist, and Label. Select one of these tabs to narrow your search results to just that category.

To get to the Advanced Search, just start typing in the search bar and select Advanced Search from the drop down menu.

How Do I Store Records?

Keep them away from heat, humidity, and water, and always store them vertically. Be careful to not let your record stacks lean against each other, as it can create undesirable pressure on the vinyl. Discogs has an entire article devoted to record storage if you’d like to take a deep dive.

How Do You Clean Records?

If you’re buying used vinyl, it’s important to be able to identify the record that looks like it’s in bad shape but just needs a good cleaning. Sometimes, the grease, gunk, and various smudges that accumulate on the surface over decades are easily removed by a good washing. Most people rely on the classic Spin-Clean, which can thoroughly scrub old records relatively cheaply. And by having this device, you might be more likely to take chances on cheap LPs that look dicey. After the Spin-Clean, use a carbon fiber brush with each play, allowing it to spin for a few revolutions while the dust collects on the bristles. With these low-cost implements, it’s fairly easy to keep your new collection sounding its best.

Remember Where You Listen to Vinyl

The most significant difference between listening to a vinyl record and listening to another format is the LP is not portable. (Unless you have a Sound Burger.) More than any other single factor, the lack of portability explains why the LP ceased to be the dominant format in 1983 (the rise of the Walkman meant cassettes supplanted LPs). Listening to your personal music collection was something that only happened in a room with a turntable. And that’s still true for vinyl. So think about what you listen to in that room, and the conditions necessary for you to play records.

In most cases, buying new vinyl does not mean you’re just getting the vinyl version of the album. It also means you’re getting a digital download code of the album. So you can listen to your vinyl record at home, then throw your digital download onto your computer (or vintage iPod) and experience that album on the go. 

But bear in mind that vinyl has a richer, more distinct sound than compressed MP3s, so it’s important to reserve time and space for the vinyl you listen to at home.

Learn How Much Record Wear You’ll Tolerate

For a lot of people, 90% of the fun of record-collecting is buying used. That’s where the history is, and it’s also where the deals are. Used vinyl used to be cheap and plentiful, but that’s no longer as true, in part because so many more people are interested in it now than were 20 years ago. If you buy used records in person, you will over time develop an eye for the kinds of wear that can’t be fixed with cleaning (more on that in a moment). Clicks and pops are endemic to the experience of used records, but everyone has their own tolerance level for how much surface noise is too much.

Excessive surface noise can be bothersome to seasoned listeners, but everybody is different. For some, the experience of listening to history and the fun of finding a classic album for a buck or two outweighs the noise. Figure out where your listening tolerances are on this journey and let that be your guide.

Be Realistic About Sound Quality

If you’ve heard that “vinyl sounds amazing” and you begin your record-buying adventure thinking about sound quality first, you might be disappointed, especially if you are starting out with relatively inexpensive equipment. Vinyl absolutely sounds different from digital music — it’s a complicated engineering process, turning record grooves into sound, one that involves a lot of electronic processing and ways to get around limitations, such as the fact that the inner groove of a record can’t carry nearly as much information as the outer bands. And that process alters the sound, in ways that are different with each person’s gear. Focus less on what sounds “better” and more on what sounds “different,” and also keep in mind that the sound of vinyl LPs is only part of the appeal.

Are You a Completist?

One of the best things about your new music collection is that you’re going to discover new artists that immediately make you think, “I need everything from them!” Call these your go-to artists. As you’re browsing shops, it’s fun to have a list of go-to artists like this, preferably from artists that have released a lot of albums. So as you start your collection, think about whether you prefer higher quality albums across the board or if you have more of a completist’s instinct, and let that inform how you make your way through a record store.

Are You An Eclectic Collector?

In Wantlist

Man On The Moon – The Flight Of Apollo 11

Roy Neal

1969

Non-Music, Radioplay, Education

Vinyl, LP, Club Edition

Shop Want

Once you cross the completist threshold, there are even more considerations to consider. Enter the “eclectic” collector, someone who needs a little bit of everything in their collection, including novelties, field recordings, and one-off record store surprises. We all have at least a few of them in our collection, from NASA recordings of the moon landing, to vinyl designed for medical professionals that features recordings of human heartbeats. These eclectic choices can be excellent additions to your collection, BUT they also take up space on your shelves and might not get played all the time. Think about how much space you have for LPs you might pull out once a year just to spin for a friend, and whether the history of LPs like these, which is admittedly fascinating, is something that interests you.

Remember When Vinyl Was King

In Wantlist

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd

2016

Rock

Vinyl, Album, Reissue, 180 gram

Shop Want

As mentioned above, cassette tapes overtook vinyl as the best-selling format in the early 1980s. The recording industry is a technology industry, and in the years since that milestone, they’ve devoted a lot more energy to the formats that make them the most money rather than making vinyl albums sound their best. The years in which the long-playing vinyl was the dominant format — this varies by genre, starting earlier with jazz in the 1950s and later with rock and pop music, starting in the late 1960s — are the years when the industry was most invested in making the format as good as it could be. So copies of Steely Dan’s Aja, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, and, to pick a brilliant album that’s less discussed in audiophile circles, Joni Mitchell’s Blue, are still standard-bearers for sonic quality all these years later.

By the middle of the 1980s, record companies cared more about making CDs sound good than they did about LPs. By the 1990s, some had stopped producing vinyl. The format came back, and there have been many terrific-sounding records since, but it’s never a bad idea to imagine where, exactly, vinyl stood as a priority when you are looking to buy LPs.

Open Yourself to Surprises

In Wantlist

Big Fun

Shalamar

1979

Funk / Soul, Pop, Disco, Funk

Vinyl, LP, Album

Shop Want

You can easily build a collection in this current day and age without ever setting foot in a record store. And depending on where you live, that may be the only option. But if you have a shop nearby, especially one that sells used LPs, that’s where more than half the fun of this hobby can be found. It’s a beautiful thing to walk into a store when you’re not looking for anything in particular and walking out with something to listen to that you’ve never heard of before. Record stores are where you can take chances on music unfamiliar to you. Take some chances on records with interesting covers (such as Shalamar’s Big Fun), records from genres you don’t know well, and records that your intuition tells you to buy.

Create A Discogs Wantlist

The flip-side of embracing uncertainty is to keep a list of records you’re looking for. Every good shopping experience should have a mix of both. Before Discogs, most people would keep a handwritten list of “records to buy” in their wallet or pocket. Now, thanks to the Discogs Wantlist, it’s easier than ever to keep track of “records to buy” and even easier to move them to your Collection once you’ve purchased said albums.

How Do You Catalog Your Record Collection?

Concerning your physical collection, there are a variety of ways to catalog your record collection. Consider the following options: Alphabetical, Chronological, Genre-based, Label-based.

To store your cataloged records, use crates, shelves, or record storage units. Then use dividers or separators to keep different sections of your collection organized based on your chosen cataloging system.

But there’s more: Using Discogs to list the releases you have in your Collection is one of the main features of Discogs. And it’s simple. 

You can: Add a release, Manage and edit, Remove a release, Share your collection.

Be Social

Record collecting doesn’t have to be a solitary pursuit. Look for record swaps, vinyl meetups, listening parties, and other music-related events in your area where you can connect with fellow collectors, buy, sell, or trade records, and immerse yourself in the culture of vinyl collecting.

If you’re on Instagram, #VinylCollection and #VinylCommunity are good places to start too.

Remember What Vinyl Records Do Best

You can learn things by reading a record, especially the liner notes.

Vinyl LPs are not the most convenient format, and they’re not the most accurate format sonically, but there are some things vinyl is especially good for. In fact, the lack of convenience turns out to be the format’s greatest strength. If you want to play one song at a time or skip through an album to seek out your favorites, you may be better off with streaming. But if you want to hear an album straight through, experiencing it the way an artist intended, then vinyl, by its very limitations, nudges you in that direction. Search for LPs that you’ll want to listen to for at least a side at a time, because many devoted artists put hours of time into the sequencing order of the albums they release. And the art of sequencing is sometimes lost in the rush to stream the new single.

And there’s the vinyl packaging. You can learn things by reading a record, especially the liner notes, thank you lists, and lists of contributing musicians. Before the Internet, liner notes were akin to clues that could help you search for new bands, discover distinctive production sounds, and plan future purchases. Remember, vinyl LPs can teach you things. 

And we can’t forget the 12-inch by 12-inch image found on each cover, a visual experience no other format has come close to replicating. Again, many artists put a lot of time into the creation of the album artwork, layout, and typography used to compliment their music, and these visual clues can also lead you down a rabbit hole of exploration.