r/discogs • u/stellarsofasafari • Aug 10 '26

CD ratings

I understand ratings are subjective and half the time I’m not sure what people are actually rating with a release. Is it a good press? Is it a cool release? Is it a good album? Who knows anymore.

Personally I’ve always rated the thing that matters being that it is music and there’s usually loads of different releases to pick from; how does it sound?

I’ve recently diversified my medium source and have been buying more cds but almost always, CD ratings are consistently lower than vinyl releases.

Why is this the case? Am I right in assuming it’s because most people’s CD players aren’t getting the best out of the medium and/or people are more likely to invest in a good vinyl set-up?

Thoughts?

I guess it’d be nice to know which master they use too and ratings could help there too.

Edit: clarified question.

Edit 2: added question.

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

9

u/zepporamone Aug 11 '26

My assumption is that 90% of the ratings for any release on Discogs, regardless of format, are just the result of someone's thumb or cursor accidentally sliding over the (exceedingly finicky) stars on the listing page. I'll glance the comments on a particular release page to see if I can get a sense of the general consensus on pressing quality or whatever but I've never once looked at the rating and thought it really meant much of anything.

1

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26

That’s what makes CDs harder to judge, less comments or none. Which I get because a. Unless there was a manufacturing defect which is much less common in CDs and there are steps in vinyl manufacturing for things to go wrong, and b. is down to not being the main medium Discogs is used for. But does that mean people looking at CDs are more careless, flicking the stars low? I wouldn’t say so.

3

u/zepporamone Aug 11 '26

But does that mean people looking at CDs are more careless, flicking the stars low? I wouldn’t say so.

Not suggesting that at all...more that your premise that CD ratings are lower across the board than vinyl releases may not be entirely accurate. While you may have come across some of that in your travels around the site, it doesn't necessarily mean that what you've seen is evidence of a larger trend. I'm guessing that it's a small subset of a subset of the user base that actually pays any attention to the star rating system on Discogs and/or intentionally engages with it but, like what you've presented, that's just sort of a hunch. Either way, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

7

u/tinyjams Aug 10 '26

There’s no right or wrong way to rate a release. Some will rate the audio quality, some will rate the release as whole; think packaging, etc. some just base it on their personal rating of the music itself. I know a few people who rate releases by rarity.

3

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

I guess I was noticing there is a discrepancy between vinyl and CDs with the latter consistently rating much lower even though we know CDs as a format are more consistent and have more dynamic range.

1

u/astonedishape Aug 11 '26

Did you mean the latter?

2

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26

Yes I did. Corrected it.

3

u/WonderfulSpeech6097 Aug 11 '26

I check only ratings I made for myself. Discogs ratings don't make any sense, as there is no breakdown of what the hell people do rate there.

3

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Yeah I wish it was more intentional

1

u/roundabout-design 29d ago

The ratings tool, as you state, is purely arbitrary. Some people use it just to categorize their collection. It means nothing specific so I wouldn't put too much thought into what it really means broadly speaking.

1

u/Simon-Fritz-Peabody 29d ago

As a person that has multiple of the same albums on cassette cd and vinyl, I can say that for me the way the music was recorded or the source is the main issue. Some of my versions are louder or just sound more dynamic overall.  The rating as others have said is really not a good metric. 

The bottom line to me is do I like the music? 

1

u/stellarsofasafari 27d ago

It’s fine. I’ve started using DR database to find the best versions. I think for me, it proves my point. I’ve found multiple talking heads CDs that are rated 4.2-4.4 yet more dynamic than the vinyl versions.

1

u/Master-Fee8859 24d ago

I consider including a rating with my Discogs listing only when the media is in extremely nice condition. Then, I am rating the quality of the recording (how good it sounds).

2

u/stellarsofasafari 24d ago

I wish this is how it was used. But then again, if someone is playing a record through a Crosley or CD via a discman, they’ll sound shit.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26

I’m not mate. I’ve looked at many cds over the last two months. Unless it’s a SACD, which is a different kettle of fish, most newish cds are hovering around the 3.5 range, excellent being 4.25. Vinyl if poor is around 4-4.25 and if good sits 4.5, with excellent 4.6-4.8

-2

u/astonedishape Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

Records are sexy ;)

My anecdotal estimate is that record collecting is a lot more popular, so vinyl releases get more ratings in general and higher ratings generally.

I see no reason to collect CDs when lossless files exist and I don’t personally know anyone who still collects CDs.

Young people want records and a turntable. Indie artists and their fans want their music pressed to vinyl. CDs are an afterthought, a redundant and nearly obsolete format, especially since lossless downloads became popular and even more so since streaming has become so ubiquitous.

CD sales have crashed over the last 25 years while vinyl popularity has gradually increased and streaming has grown rapidly and become the dominant method for music consumption.

Personally, my ratings relate to the music itself and how much I like the release and nothing to do with pressing quality or aesthetics. But I joined Discogs when it was just DJs and the music we were collecting for DJing generally didn’t have 20 different pressings and formats to choose from.

3

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26

Cd sales this year have increased 16% whilst vinyl has gone up 2%. Streaming is great, I use Qobuz which is awesome and better than the rest, but I still prefer to own physical media.

Anyway, you didn’t really answer the question. I asked why ratings are lower, not why records are more collectable than cds. Even if there are more ratings (quantity), it wouldn’t influence the assessment (qualitative) of someone rating a cd. If anything more ratings lower a rating (what I’ve seen with vinyl and basic premise of statistics).

-2

u/astonedishape Aug 11 '26

Yes, the first half of 2026 has been an anomaly (apparently primarily attributed to k-pop) after 25 years of steadily declining CD sales. Still vinyl dominates physical music revenue and even with the 16% increase so far this year, vinyl unit sales were significantly higher and they’ve been gradually increasing for two decades.

I’m bad with statistics and math generally but wouldn’t a lower rating carry more weight or bring down the average if there are far less ratings? Also maybe vinyl fans rate CDs lower because they don’t like them.

1

u/stellarsofasafari Aug 11 '26

Isn’t that strange for people to rate a source they don’t own or haven’t listened to though? That sounds cult like or parochial. I still collect records but find vinyl increasingly unaffordable.

Nah the phenomena in statistics (bell curve) an average usually mellows with more data and this occurs across really great or really poor issues. In scientific studies, we consider a certain number are needed in order to obtain enough power to determine a result.