Billboard listings question

December 16, 2014 10:32 PM

When listing music labels, what do the numbers mean? For example Decca 29418, Decca 32230, etc.
posted by dilaudid to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

It's the catalog number, the label's serial number type identifier for the release.
posted by rhizome at 10:56 PM on December 16, 2014

It's a catalog number or a portion thereof, not to be confused with a serial number identifying a particular unit on a numbered release. Useful for determining an album's authenticity or rarity. Nowadays catalog numbers are 12 or so digits long but only a portion of the number (a chunk in the middle) actually indicates the release. The last time I looked at a printed Billboard chart they were just printing those 5 or 6 digit portions.
posted by acidic at 11:24 PM on December 16, 2014

Before barcodes got to be a thing, records in a warehouse were organized by format (LP, cassette, 45, and so on), record label, and number. There's way less ambiguity when you do it that way, as opposed to artist name, musical genre etc. Retailers would place orders organized pretty much the same way. You'd get to the 45 singles part of the order, and there would be Decca with some numbers listed below. You go to where the 45s are shelved, and find Decca, and there in numerical order (assuming they're in stock!) you pull 29418 (Bill Haley) and 32230 (Leon Haywood).
posted by in278s at 11:48 PM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]