Interesting article about discogs found via slashdot
HughPickens.com writes:Ben Sisario writes at the NYT that Discogs has built one of the most exhaustive collections of discographical information in the world, and with 24 million items for sale, (eBay’s music section lists 11 million) Discogs is on track to do nearly $100 million in business by the end of the year. One of Discog’s secrets is the use of Wikipedia’s model of user-generated content with historical data cataloged by thousands of volunteer editors in extreme detail. The site’s entry for the Beatles’ White Album, for instance, contains 309 distinct versions of the record, including its original releases in countries like Uruguay, India and Yugoslavia — in mono and stereo configurations — and decades of reissues, from Greek eight-tracks to Japanese CDs. “There’s a record-collector gene,” says Kevin Lewandowski. “Some people want to know every little detail about a record.”