Discogs Launches an “Exclusive” Marketplace for Records You Don’t Need and Can’t Afford

In what appears to be a showcase aimed strictly at collectors, Discogs has announced the launch of “Discogs Exclusives.” The new marketplace/platform promises “advanced access” to “unique, one of a kind” items.

The items will be sold in a platform outside of Discogs’ ordinary marketplace, presumably to provide a showcase and additional marketing. The first products include a cassette boxed set of John Carpenter’s full length albums and a White Stripes test pressing. If the latter is any indication (the White Stripes test pressings are $500), the fare at Discogs Exclusives will be more akin to music-as-memorabilia (an investment or work of art to hang on the wall or place somewhere ostentatiously) rather than for a channel for distribution.

The John Carpenter collection is only $30, but was also released in an edition of 500 copies – which seems about right for a “deluxe” cassette tape edition of anything. (I say this having bought and written about a couple of these, including Carpenter’s Anthology and Lost Themes Remixed.)

Vinyl Factory’s Gabriela Helfet spoke with Discogs’ Jeffrey Smith who explains the new marketplace is the result of “intense conversations with people working within the indie/major label communities… They have access to something neither we nor the Community have access to: test pressings or tiny amounts of out-of-print stock that can be hard to find — even in our own Marketplace.”

The marketplace is in beta release now and three of the four showcase products are listed as out of stock, but you can sample the look and feel of it yourself here.