How I Transformed the Purchasing Experience for the Vinyl Community
The TL;DR
1️⃣ I built from scratch a database for the vinyl community that aggregates over 80 data attributes that are vitally important to audiophiles
2️⃣ Users now have the metadata of the entire vinyl reissue market at their fingertips through a dashboard that features 44 of the database's attributes
Disconnected Data, Inefficient Insights
The vinyl resurgence is real – 44 million units were sold in the United States alone in 2024, totaling $1.4 billion in revenue – but that growth has come with some pains for consumers.
Digital in Vinyl?
Newcomers to vinyl are often surprised that the vast majority of new releases (reissues included) involve some form of digital in the sourcing or mastering process.
After all, isn’t vinyl supposed to be analog?
What Audiophiles Want to Know
Audiophiles who buy reissues on vinyl want to know two basic questions before making a purchase:
- Is this vinyl record all-analog (i.e., no digital whatsoever in the mastering chain)?
- Were the original analog master tapes used (as opposed to an analog tape copy)?
The Actual Question
Put more simply, here’s what consumers are constantly asking themselves:
“How do I know what I’m buying?”
Where I Entered the Picture
I, as a vinyl consumer, began to ask myself that question repeatedly – especially after the Mobile Fidelity scandal in 2022 revealed that many MoFi editions that were supposedly all-analog were not.
During the course of my investigation over the next couple of years, I found bits and pieces of answers, but not what I truly craved.
Filling the Gap
What I wanted as a consumer was a central repository of information that could quickly and easily tell me exactly what I needed to know to make a purchasing decision.
Since it didn’t exist, I sought to create it.
Current Consumer Headaches
Data Silos
Certain data can be found in various places (like Discogs), but nothing is curated, unified or distilled into what consumers find essential
Slow Decisions
Consumers waste hours looking at multiple websites to confirm details about multiple versions when deciding which edition to buy
Wasted Budget
Consumers potentially overpay for editions they may not have wanted if they had known about a better and/or cheaper one
The OSEMN Framework: Always an Awesome Strategy
The OSEMN framework used in data analytics (and yes, it is indeed pronounced like "awesome") provides the perfect approach to solving this issue.
I learned this framework while completing two professional certificates – marketing analytics and data analysis – offered by Meta on the Coursera platform.
Awesomeness Defined
OSEMN stands for Obtain, Scrub, Explore, Model, and iNterpret.
In this particular case study, only the first three steps of the framework are necessary since, as you’ll soon see, we do not need to do any modeling, which involves the use of data science.
Beginning with the End in Mind
The end goal was (and still is) to provide a public-facing, always-on 24/7 dashboard that the vinyl community can access to get the answers they need prior to making a purchase.
However, as anyone who has shopped for vinyl knows, there are many variables to consider, especially when the goal is to buy the ultimate edition of an album.
What Vinyl Consumers Crave
In particular, consumers want to know:
SPARS Code
SPARS Code determines if a vinyl record is all-analog or whether digital was used. (“AAA” = all-analog.)
Source
Source determines if the original analog master tapes were used or whether an analog tape copy was used.
Mastering Engineer
Each time you listen to music, you are listening to the mastering engineer's take on it.
Pressing Plant
Pressing plants can vary quite widely with regard to quality control standards.
Why These Details Matter
Again, vinyl reissues that are all-analog and sourced from the original analog master tapes are more highly prized by consumers and collectors.
Consumers then like to compare who mastered the record and where the record was pressed, since these two variables arguably have the biggest impact on sound quality.
Planning the Next Steps
With these primary variables locked in, I needed to figure out how to obtain the raw data so I could scrub it and then warehouse it in a database in structured form.
Once that was done, I could then create a public-facing dashboard so that anyone could explore the data in order to see what was on the market that matched their requirements.
Framework Focus: The OSEMN framework provided structure while maintaining flexibility to adapt as requirements evolved through experimenting with the eventual dashboard interface.
Data Integration and Dashboard Development
I already own a website called EricMackAttacks.com where I frequently write about music, and I figured this new project might as well be an extension of that website and brand.
That website uses the WordPress content management system (CMS), which allows for a great amount of flexibility when building various types of content.
Settling on a Format
I quickly realized that formatting the content as a shop would actually make the most sense to users – after all, the whole point of this particular project was to help consumers with purchasing decisions.
Using the WooCommerce plugin, I added a shop to the site, but disabled everything that made it a shop: cart, checkout, etc. It is a shop in form, but not in function — I am only interested in presenting the user with information.
Building Out the Shop
Now it was time to add products to the shop and allow for the enormous web of data to take shape.
Using the product attributes functionality in WooCommerce, I was able to create attributes for SPARS Code, Source, Mastering Engineer, Pressing Plant, and dozens of others like Album, Artist, RPM, AllMusic Rating, etc.
Using Discogs
Thankfully, much of this data is publicly available and is already structured on the wonderful website Discogs, which is like a Wikipedia for audiophiles.
Discogs attempts to catalog every version of every album, with complete album credits viewable on the site.
Lifting and Shifting
Obtaining and scrubbing this data, and importing it into the product attributes on my new WooCommerce shop, was not much more than a simple lift and shift.
One thing to note about Discogs — and here is where the comparison to Wikipedia is especially apt — is that the content is user-generated, and therefore sometimes incorrect. A small degree of manual clean up was required.
Where Things Were Tougher
SPARS Code and Source information only exists in a decidedly unstructured format: within paragraphs of description on the individual product pages on eCommerce websites like Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, and Elusive Disc.
Or it can be found on the hype stickers affixed to the front of records, which is not much help either.
Shifting Gears from Automatic Import to Manual
This meant that there was a degree of interpretation, curation and reading between the lines involved in figuring out what was what.
Of course, this is the very nature of the problem in the first place — it’s not always clear!
Driving a Manual Data Transmission
I should also point out that selecting which products to include in the shop in the first place (as well as which attributes) has been entirely manual on my part.
To reiterate: creating this kind of database (or even just a list of products) that tells audiophiles which editions meet even the simplest of criteria has never happened before.
Reaching MVP Status
There are now more than 1,400 products in the shop, each carefully tagged across more than 80 different product attributes.
In other words, the data is perfectly structured on the back end and is completely clean. (I have worked enough with data in my professional life to know that your data can never be too clean.)
Nailing the Final Presentation
Building the dashboard on the shop homepage – EricMackAttacks.com/Shop – proved to be fairly simple.
In the WordPress block editor, I added “filter by attribute” blocks to the page, and voila! Suddenly the user can slice and dice almost infinitely.
Executing on the OSEMN Framework
01
Obtain
Discogs proved to be an invaluable resource for album credits, mastering engineer and pressing plant details that could easily be lifted and shifted with minimal clean up
02
Scrub
While Discogs data is pretty standardized and structured, critical data gaps for SPARS Code and Source were not and had to be manually vetted and conformed
03
Explore
The data was warehoused in a relational database that can be queried using filters in the dashboard to return specific results of near-infinite possibilities depending on what the user is looking for
04
Model
This step of the framework is beyond the scope of what this particular project/case study was attempting to accomplish; normally this is where a marketing analyst (i.e., me) will partner with a data scientist to use machine learning in order to unlock insights that are just not visible to the naked eye
05
Interpret
In a work environment, this is where insights gained from the modeling step are refined into a narrative with key findings and highly visual, highly actionable business intelligence that can be presented to the stakeholders at an organization that are tasked with making critical decisions
From Vision to Reality: Limitless Insights
We have now reached the E step of the OSEMN framework, which means it's now time to finally explore the data and see why I went to all this trouble in the first place to create this monstrosity!
The dashboard is truly a sandbox; users can play around in it and gather insights in a real-time manner that is designed to be unstructured.
Added Structure, Added Insights
However, I have included some filter presets to help guide them, with two in particular that will likely appeal to most users (and demonstrate the ability to reveal the most insights, which is the purpose of this case study).
1
"Best Reissues"
Audiophile vinyl reissues that have a SPARS Code of AAA (i.e., are all-analog) and are sourced from the original analog master tapes.
Currently, this matches 1,057 products.
2
"Best Records"
This narrows the list of "Best Reissues" to those that are in print (i.e., still widely available for purchase at list price in new/sealed condition) and are included on Acclaimed Music’s current list of the top 3000 albums of all time.
Currently, this matches 369 products.
In Plain English
The first preset directly answers the two questions raised by audiophile vinyl consumers (i.e., the ones that caused me to start this whole project), but is necessarily incomplete for now since it includes products that are out of print.
The second preset was created as a reaction to this situation: newer consumers are more likely to buy reissues that are still in print, and those looking to start a collection are more likely to begin with albums considered the greatest of all time.
Why This Is Groundbreaking
Earlier I used a car transmission metaphor to relate the difference between obtaining and scrubbing data in an automatic vs. manual way.
To extend that metaphor, this dashboard now puts consumers in the driver's seat for the first time. They get to choose whether to drive the data in automatic (relying on the presets to help them shift gears/choose filters) or manual transmission.
Getting Immediate Answers
For example, with the second preset of filters selected certain insights become immediately apparent when you go to select additional filters.
Something I should stress here is that every edition currently on the market that fits these parameters is in the shop — the data population is complete. The sheer size of some of the leads below among the frontrunners in some categories is gobsmacking:
- Analogue Productions (111) is the reissue label that has released the largest share of the 369 products, which dwarfs the next highest (Speakers Corner, 28)
- Quality Record Pressings (144) has pressed almost twice as many products as the next highest pressing plant (Optimal, 83)
- Kevin Gray (143) is the lacquer cutting engineer more than twice as often as the next highest (Bernie Grundman, 64)
Wondering about a data point like, say, genre that isn't intrinsically audiophile related? Pop/Rock narrowly leads Jazz 179 to 171. (R&B needs some more love by the reissue labels: only 45 products match.)
Data at Everyone's Fingertips
These insights are readily available, right on the surface, for any user to see (and they really are just the tip of the iceberg). Previously, this information was practically invisible to consumers and the vinyl reissue industry more broadly.
What's more, users can simply search in the Artist filter (yes, the filters are search bars and dropdowns) or Album filter to quickly check to see if any favorite albums or artists have editions that meet the "Best Reissue" or "Best Record" standard.
Comparing Different Versions of an Album
Something that is key to understand about audiophiles is we love to compare different versions, and we love to see as much data as possible about each version before purchasing.
A significant portion of the vinyl community (i.e., those with far better systems than I have) like to acquire multiple versions of the same album and conduct "shootouts" in the form of double blind listening tests.
Really? Multiple Versions on Vinyl?
Really. To clear filters and not use any of the presets mentioned above, all the user has to do is click on “Shop” in the website navigation, which will remove the query string in the URL that tells the database which products to include in the results.
Then when the album is selected using the Album filter, all versions in the shop will appear. The user can then narrow the selections further using additional filters if desired. (Don't want digital in your vinyl? Select "AAA" in the SPARS Code filter.)
Zeroing in on a Product
Once a product is clicked on, the user can pivot from the dashboard to look at the individual product page.
This is where all of the data for that item is available, including a product description and links to get even more information (e.g., Discogs, AllMusic) or to purchase it (e.g., Amazon, eBay).
Getting Users Where They Want to Go
The CTA button is always an external link for the user to purchase the product somewhere else.
I typically choose the link where the price will be lowest and where the item is most likely to be in stock. I want the user to have the best experience they can have — trust is everything.
Out of Print = Linking Out to eBay
Once the product goes out of print (and they all do eventually, since we're talking about vinyl here), I update the Availability product attribute value from “In Print” to “Out of Print” and replace the link in the CTA button with a link to eBay.
When I began this project in late 2024, I signed up for the Amazon and eBay affiliate programs since I wanted to include links to Amazon and eBay anyway in the links section on each product page so users could quickly compare pricing.
Kicked to the Curb
eBay has turned out to be an easy affiliate program to deal with but Amazon has a sales threshold requirement — if you don't sell a certain amount in your first 90 days as an Amazon Associate, you're thrown out.
Well, that's what happened: I didn't make my three sales or whatever, and so Amazon deactivated my affiliate status. I didn't bother to sign up again, since it wasn't what I was focused on.
An Unexpected Pot of Gold?
When this project was under construction (i.e., pre-MVP status), the pages were always live (and properly search engine optimized) but I told almost no one — and certainly no one in the vinyl community — about this project's existence.
I’m sure you can imagine my surprise at having referred over $2,000 worth of sales on eBay as an affiliate during the first 11 months of 2025, when I had signed up for the affiliate program almost as a complete afterthought.
Always a Performance Marketer
The point of this case study is not to measure performance in monetization terms — this was always meant to be a project about the power of data to bridge an important information gap for a niche consumer group of which I am a part.
However, it would seem my performance marketer nature (which indeed is my professional background) has found a way to creep into this project after all, and I may just have to look into seeing how I can optimize this potential income source.
But that will have to be a story for another day.
The Major Stats, Recapped
1400+
Total Products
The shop will continue to grow over time, since new audiophile editions are released every week
1000+
"Best Reissues"
Cut all-analog (AAA) from the original master tapes, these are properly cataloged for the first time — ever
350+
"Best Records"
"Best Reissues" that are still in print and make Acclaimed Music's current list of the top 3000 albums of all time
How to Get in Touch
Hi, I’m Eric 👋 I’m a U.S.-based marketing analytics strategist who’s spent the last 9+ years helping B2B SaaS teams scale smarter with data systems, paid media, and lifecycle campaigns.
I studied film and philosophy, but what pulled me into marketing was its strange mix of creativity, psychology, and performance.
Over time, I found that the real power of marketing came from data and the ability to turn complex behavior into clear stories that drive action.
In my first job, I made 200 cold calls a day. I hated it, but it taught me what I needed to learn:
I wasn’t meant to sell, I was meant to understand why people buy.
Since then, I’ve led global demand gen and marketing ops across SaaS, fintech, and 3D tech, connecting the dots between data, behavior, and revenue with full-funnel measurement and campaign performance.
Recently, I took a purposeful sabbatical to support my family, deepen my skills in AI and PLG, and build side projects like the vinyl record dashboard described on this very page.
Some work I’m proud of:
- Criteria Corp: 3x’d enterprise leads and cut CAC 30% by pairing Smart Bidding with Salesforce funnel data
- Stratasys: Drove a 4.5x pipeline increase while scaling paid media to $90K/month and revamping SEO
- Simppl Media: Cut CPL by 38% and doubled ROAS across 6 accounts with landing page testing and budget reallocation
In 2025, I took a focused sabbatical to deepen my skills in AI, PLG, and marketing analytics.
I’m now ready for my next challenge, so if you’re building a SaaS growth engine and need someone who thrives on performance, systems, and scale, I’d love to connect.