Music Archive & Internet Culture Encyclopedia
Vinylore documents releases that almost nobody heard when they came out (Italo disco, city pop, library music, novelty 45s) and maps how a seven-second slice of them ended up on millions of screens. Every entry is a catalog card: release data from Discogs, digital footprint, the path it spread along, and a hard line between claims and facts, all pointing to sources.
Archive method
Our tone is deliberately flat. What is interesting is not how we tell the story but how strange these objects turn out to be once they are documented with the discipline of a library catalog.
A 0–100 score from three measured signals: scarcity among Discogs collectors (45%), absence of an official copy on Apple Music (30%), and the view count of the most-watched YouTube upload (25%). A high number means the object stays hard to find even while its name travels.
A timeline from the first pressing through regional distribution and second-hand resurfacing to the moment an upload changed its status for good. Every event points to its source.
Every popular claim is sorted into one of three statuses: verified, unproven, or false. We say plainly when the only evidence is testimony without a supporting document.
Set two releases against each other on eight metrics: year, Discogs collectors, digital availability, YouTube views, obscurity index, and the lowest asking price on Discogs.
Starts from the lowest price currently asked on Discogs, multiplied by grading factors from Mint to Poor, sleeve, and matrix stamp. Results are shown as a range, never a single number.
Save chosen entries to a local shelf in your browser, then export them as a catalog-formatted text file to carry to any flea market.
Lore Tracer
Filter the archive by decade, genre, and the label's country. Click any card to open the full dossier: obscurity index, timeline, and myth check.
Compare
The stronger value in each row is marked green. The marking is descriptive. Rarer does not always mean more important.
Vinyl condition calculator
The base price is the lowest asking price on Discogs when the data was fetched, multiplied by factors for disc grading, sleeve condition, and matrix stamp identification. The result is not an offer to buy or sell.
Personal crate
The crate lives in localStorage, no account and no server. Export it any time as a catalog-formatted text file.
Average Obscurity Index: no entries yet
Export format: plain text, UTF-8
Archive bulletin · every two weeks
Each issue carries one new catalog card, one viral claim checked to the end, and a short market note on pressings that suddenly changed hands. No sponsored playlists, no buying prompts.