Dead Format vs Deadwax

Dead Format is a community for vinyl collectors to share what they're listening to, talk about records, connect with fellow collectors, and more! Post what you're spinning, show off your latest pickups or listening setup, take part in monthly Vinyl Challenges, join conversations in the forums, organize your collection, find record stores, and buy and sell vinyl. One of the main features of Dead Format is the Home feed, and it works more like old-school social media. There's no weird algorithm deciding what you should see. The Following feed shows you every post from everyone you follow, in order, so you can actually keep up with what they're sharing. You can also browse the Discover tab whenever you want to see more popular posts and highlights from what's being shared by the rest of the community. Every month, there's a new Vinyl Challenge with a different prompt each day. Join in whenever you want, share a record that fits the day's prompt, browse everyone else's choices, and discover some new records and collectors along the way. The forums are a place for longer conversations, questions, recommendations, polls, and anything else that doesn't really fit into a regular post. Keep track of your collection and Want List, filter your records by artist, format, and more, upload your own photos, and track how often you're playing each record. You can even scrobble your spins to Last.fm. You can also find record stores near you or browse stores in other cities, save your favorites, tag them when you post about a recent visit or pickup, and help contribute any stores that might be missing. There's a Marketplace too, built around listings with real photos of the records being sold. Buyers can make offers, see shipping costs before checkout, and pay directly through the app. Sellers can list individual records or bundles, manage offers, and purchase discounted USPS shipping labels.

Most record apps tell you what albums you own. Connect to your Discogs collection, and Deadwax shows you which pressings you own, and whether they’re the ones worth keeping. Deadwax brings the pressing research collectors already do: audiophile versions, notable mastering engineers, forum favorites, and shootout results into one app. Deadwax. I have bought the same album three times, not on purpose. The first was a deal that did not sound right. The second came from a record fair - a dealer I trusted, a sleeve that looked right, a runout I could not quite read. It was not the one either. The third time, I had done the research. Read the threads. Cross-referenced the matrix markings. I paid more than I wanted to. The needle dropped, and I finally understood what all the fuss was about. The pressing makes the record. The same master, cut by a different engineer at a different plant, sounds like a different record. Most of us have been flying blind, or searching through forums and watching shootout videos to find the best pressing. A familiar scenario for any record collector. Deadwax changes that by doing the heavy lifting and research for you and bringing those insights to your fingertips with Pressing Intelligence. No marketplace noise - just the data that separates one copy from another to help you find the pressing to own. PRESSING INTELLIGENCE Every release in your collection gets a pressing-level breakdown: notable mastering engineers, audiophile and audiophile adjacent labels, best pressings from popular forums, and shootout video winners from creators we trust. PI badges flag full pressing Intelligence. AP badges surface the audiophile pressings you may not have known you owned. With a tap, you are directed to review forums and launched into a shootout video reference. YOUR COLLECTION A clean visual grid of your Discogs collection. PI and AP badges surface what matters. Tap any release for full pressing detail. No more cross-referencing different pressings across your browser tabs and reading decade-old forum threads. WANTLIST WITH PURPOSE Add a release directly from Deadwax. Syncs with Discogs. No double-entry, no marketplace upsell - just the pressings you are still hunting. Built around the specific pressing, not just the title. DISCOVER, CURATED A discovery surface organized around mastering engineers, audiophile labels, and the people who actually own these records - curated lists, not algorithmic filler. In the record shop, quickly type in the matrix from the deadwax and know instantly you’re holding a great-sounding pressing. If you have ever bought the same album twice chasing a better pressing -  Deadwax was built for you. If you have ever squinted at a runout etching, trying to decode whether it says A2 or B2, Deadwax was built for you. If you have ever wondered whether the copy on your shelf is the one to keep, you already know the answer. Deadwax shows it to you.