Friends – Welcome back!
On our journey together through the wonderful land of 1950s popular music, I’ve walked you through many of these artists lives and their great tunes, but I’ve yet to show you how to actually collect their music.
In the age of digital streaming, collecting music sounds a little old-fashioned! Well, it is, and it’s a lot of fun too, but you have to know where to buy, how to buy, and what to buy.
Today I’m going to walk you through the process of buying music of the 50s (for beginners, of course.) Buying music can actually get a little complicated, but that’s why I’m here to help!
Step 1 – Where to Buy
You can buy music anywhere, whether it be a vinyl album or a CD, record stores have tons of music, but unfortunately your local Newbury Comics isn’t going to have a huge selection of Patti Page and Perry Como – that’s if they even have a selection at all.
In order to find popular artists of the 50s you have to stay away from the hippie stores as they tend to cater more to newer artists like Billie eye lash, or stuff from the 60s like those shaggy haired Beatles.
I buy many of my CDs from an online disc selling website called “Discogs.” It’s a community-based site where individual sellers sell their CDs and vinyl records for fairly reasonable prices, and it’s nice because you get original, authentic, good quality albums that were originally released in the 50s.
A quick-note – because Discogs isn’t as mainline as a site like eBay or Amazon, it’s easier for people to try and sell you junk or try to scam you. Always read reviews when shopping on Discogs. I don’t purchase anything from anybody who has less than a 96% approval rating.
Now, that brings me to eBay and Amazon. I do purchase many of my albums from eBay as it is a site I’m familiar with and have used for a long time. The same rule applies here though. I don’t purchase anything from anybody who has less than a 96% approval rating, otherwise you may get some bad quality product.
Amazon I also purchase from on occasion. Not nearly as much because people aren’t looking to sell off their old vinyl records on Amazon, but if I want to purchase a newer CD compilation, I know Prime has my back!
As a general rule of thumb, always read a seller’s terms and return policy to ensure you know exactly who and what you’re buying.
Step 2 – How to Buy
Buying music can be tedious. You don’t want to purchase just anything. CDs and vinyl records have a grading scale. Often times for vinyl records you’ll see sellers put something that says “VG” or “VG+.” Sometimes you’ll see “VG+” or “EX.” Then there’s “M” or sometimes just “G.” It’s important to know what these mean.
“VG” means Very Good. “EX” means Excellent, and “M” means Mint. “G” just means good, but the catch is that it isn’t really good. It’s a piece of crap.
Good just means you can visually see the album. Once you get it on the record player it’ll sound like nails on a chalkboard.
A Very Good album is likely to have some wear and tear as well as some cracks and pops that can be pretty prevalent when played on the turntable.
An Excellent album is practically near mint, while a Mint album should be a new unopened vinyl album.
I don’t buy anything under Excellent. If I can’t find an older album at a reasonable price that’s over Very Good, I just wait until somebody puts it on the market at a better grading and a better price. It’s bound to show up somewhere.
CDs are a little different, but pretty much the same. G to M, except the G category is going to be a little better for CDs than it is for vinyl records.
I’ll actually buy a CD that is considered VG because that probably means I can still upload it to my laptop and turn it into an mp3 file, and likeliness says it's probably still in good enough shape to be played on a CD player a few more times.
Step 3 – What to Buy
The “What” here is a little trickier.
When it comes to 50s music, anybody and everybody has tried to sell certain artists under their product “label.”
It’s best to try to buy from an artist’s original label. For example, Perry Como sang for RCA Victor is whole career. If I’m going to buy a CD I’m typically going to look first to see if RCA has released anything, that way I know it’s authentic recording quality.
If it’s a different label, definitely look at the reviews and see what others have to say about the CD. Oftentimes you’ll hear complaints about sound quality because companies will record a record LP onto an audio file and publish the CD. It sounds like garbage.
So, I definitely recommend buying from original artists labels or if it’s a trusted label, like I’ve bought collections from PBS before, then you know you’re getting good quality.
Vinyl albums aren’t nearly as difficult because typically those albums were published at the time the artist was recording which means it’s coming from the original label.
That's All for Today!
Hopefully this guide will serve to help you build your own collection of music from the 50s!
Friends, stay tuned for my last post which will be up in the next few days.
Until next time - this is your 50s music fanatic Steve B., signing off!
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