One of my favorite things about being a record collector and DJ is the discovery process one has when digging around in record bins or, in this day and age, the digital record bins of Ebay, YouTube, online record stores, blogs, etc. Buying and learning about records has become easier with the internet, although one has to be careful not to be overwhelmed. It’s easy to spend hours wiling away, or tons of money on that must-have 7”, but neither compete with finding that gem by actually digging through some stacks of records somewhere.

A few friends ask me how I find the records I buy, and how I get turned on to the artists. Far be it from me to divulge all of the secrets and processes, but frequently it is a matter of hearing something and tracking it down. Ah… but where do you hear it in the first place? Friends’ and media blogs and websites, frequently, but elsewhere too. And once you hear something cool, the internet makes the research easier. It’s a little like academic research: find a key article or book, then go through the footnotes and look up some of the source material, then look in that for its source material, etc.

Sometimes, however, you hit a brick wall. Usually that brick wall has a lot to do with price – there is a ton of stuff out there for sale and it’s usually possible to find what you are looking for, but if it’s on Ebay, and other people are looking for it, you can certainly get gouged. Let me give you some examples of the process. Read more