Filling records from the Discogs catalog
Search 15 million Discogs releases from the item editor and let a record fill in its own label, catalog number, format, barcode, genres and cover art.
Discogs runs the reference database for recorded music — around 15 million releases, each with its label, catalog number, pressing year, country, format and barcode. PalmFlow reads it, so a record can fill in its own details instead of you copying them off the sleeve.
This is separate from the sync. It needs no connected Discogs account and works for anyone signed in to PalmFlow, including sellers who list records on eBay and have never used Discogs to sell anything.
Where it is
Open any item, press Edit, and Fill from Discogs sits above the details. It's collapsed until you want it.
Type the artist and the title — "Miles Davis Kind of Blue" — and pick the right pressing from the results. Search waits a moment after you stop typing before it runs, on purpose: the Discogs rate limit is shared across every PalmFlow workspace, and a request per keystroke would spend it on nothing.
What lands where
- Name — artist and title, cleaned up. Discogs' database marks (the trailing asterisk that means "credited under a name variation", the "(2)" that separates same-named artists) are stripped, because they are bookkeeping inside Discogs and noise on your shelf. A name that genuinely contains an asterisk is left alone.
- Brand — the record label.
- Model — the catalog number. This is the one worth caring about: it's what a collector searches, and it's the field most likely to be mistyped off a sleeve. Now you don't type it at all.
- Category — the format, so a 12" single and an LP don't sit in one bucket.
- UPC — the release barcode, which ties the record into barcode scanning like any other item.
- Tags — every genre and style on the release. These merge into the tags the item already has rather than replacing them.
- Photos — the primary sleeve image.
- Description — a single line with the format, the label and catalog number, and the country and year of the pressing.
The Discogs release id, year and country are kept on the item as custom fields, so you can filter and report on pressing details later.
Why the catalog number matters
Two copies of the same album are frequently not the same record. An original UK pressing and a 2015 reissue share an artist, a title and often a sleeve — and nothing else, including the price. The catalog number is what tells them apart, which is why it takes a first-class field rather than a line in the notes.
What it doesn't do
Filling a record from the catalog changes your item. It does not create a Discogs listing, and it does not touch anything on Discogs — see How Discogs sync works.
Common questions
Do I need a Discogs account to use the release catalog in PalmFlow?
No. The catalog search uses PalmFlow's own Discogs application credentials, so any signed-in PalmFlow user can fill a record's details from it — whether or not they sell on Discogs and whether or not they've connected an account.
What does Fill from Discogs actually fill in?
The artist and title, the record label as the brand, the catalog number as the model, the format as the category, the barcode as the UPC, the genres and styles as tags, the cover art as a photo, and a description line carrying the format, label, catalog number, country and year.