Raised fees are “shattering” Discogs’ community, sellers sayRising fees are “shattering” Discogs’ vinyl community, The Verge is reporting.
In recent years, Discogs has been huge among vinyl collectors and music fans, the platform giving them the chance to buy even the most obscure records and look up information about numerous artists and releases too.

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“Some people just buy records for the album art hanging on the wall,” says Doug Martin, who’s been selling on Discogs since 2020, in comparison to Discogs users. “These were real fans listening to real music who cared about the format and the medium. That’s what attracted me in the beginning.”
But while Discogs has been a huge part of the internet for music aficionados, many sellers are unhappy with rising fees and restrictions, and the slightly outdated feel of the site.
One seller from Connecticut tells The Verge, “I’ve made my living with this company for the past decade. It’s just the frustration that you have no control over what they’re doing, and it doesn’t even make any sense.
“They’re under the impression that they’re the only game in town. The fees were relatively low, but now that they’re higher, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to use that anymore.”Indeed, one seller based in Europe says that he does 80% of his business on Discogs, and makes around €20,000 a month on the site. However, his sales have halved over the past year, and he’s in the process of ditching the site and building his own.
Issues first began when Discogs raised its fee from 8% to 9% in May, and began charging the same fee on shipping costs too – making international transactions, often popular on the site, more difficult.
Discogs suggested that sellers use a tool it had created to raise the prices of all of their products by the same percentage, or offer free shipping. Doug Martin, another Discogs seller, says of their communication with sellers, “It’s like, ‘I said what I said, and we’re done.’ Well, you’re really not, because we all have to live with this and so do you.”

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