For a lot of people, collecting music in physical formats is about more than just the sound quality. LPs and CDs bought in secondhand record stores or online can carry traces of their previous owners, windows into what their lives might be like. You can have an unspoken intimacy with a Discogs seller by seeing their handwritten BPMs scribbled on a techno EP, or getting a sense of their attention to detail in the mint condition of an old minimal wave album.
Sometimes, these traces of history on our records carry more than passing intrigue, and turn into real narratives of human lives. This was the case for Reddit user Muctur, who recently bought a used copy of the limited edition blue vinyl pressing of Soundgarden‘s 1994 album Superunknown, and found a signed note from the previous owner’s mother inside.
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In the letter the woman, called Sabine, wrote that the record was from her son Mark’s collection, who died in 2002 from a heart attack at the age of 39. She explained in heartbreaking detail that the intensive process of selling his records was a kind of therapy for her, and that the proceeds will go to Mark’s son Kai’s education. “Thank you for the support,” she said. “And when you play it—play it loud for Mark!”
If you would like to pitch in, Sabine currently has 170 records for sale on Discogs.
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