First world problem…You have a collection of CDs, Vinyl, whatever else. They may be on a shelf. They may be in a box in a closet. You may be able to see them, you may have a general idea of what they look like when you can’t see them.
Bottom line, you’re struggling to remember what you have in each format.
So when you want to buy something, how do you do go about finding what you have where and in which format?
I used old software that eventually migrated to Music Collector for CDs. When Discogs came around I started submitting my LP collection to it slowly. It was cumbersome due to their verification process. Some obscure titles have not been approved yet and may never be! However over the years their database has grown huge, especially for CDs, collectables and the new vinyl issues. It is a lot easier to find your item in their catalogue these days in which case you simply add it to your collection.
so Discogs seems to be the thing that pops up most frequently…do you scan the barcodes into it (with your phone) or is it more manually intensive??
In your scenario it goes into the “new” section. Simple.
I don’t try and catalogue my physical media, but discogs makes it easy via the mechanism you describe for the few items I’ve added to my discogs “collection”. You can then search your collection, sort it by all sorts of arcane metadata etc.
The Discogs scanner will search their database. You may have multiple hits or none at all (if it has never been entered). If there are multiple hits you theoretically should find the actual item via details like mastering and SID codes etc
I use CLZ Music for several collections (LPs, CDs, free CDs from magazine, cassettes), and they are all searchable by many criteria. It’s stored in the cloud so no losing it all.
I use an old app called OrangeCD, from Firetongue Software. But it gets very few updates these days, which is a shame.
Another possibility is Collectorz. Still going, I believe.
I have mine catalogued in a large Excel spreadsheet and over the last few years have slowly added them into Discogs.
In keeping with another thread here, I thought adding to Discogs would at least allow my other half to have some idea of what they were worth if I leave this mortal coil first and she needs to sell them to a record store, especially the vinyl. Its also been useful as I started selling a lot of CDs and a fair few LPs on Discogs as well.
It can take a lot of time trying to find the right version and its annoying when there actually isn’t an entry for the version you have and you have to create a new entry.
Collectorz aka CLZ is still going strong with very regular and useful updates.
aka Music Collector (the music portion of it?)
Yes, I looked at my app and it is called CLZ Music. There are others such as CLZ Books and CLZ Movies.
Me too. But I only have recent purchases in my Discogs Collection, as I buy them.
But everything is in my Excel listing… 
Not Difficult.
I catalogue my physical media here, so this is my back up from my own computers and disk drives!
When the forum moved to this platform in 2019 and we could add pictures I started taking photographs of my collection showing each cover and disc - an example below.
When posting in the listening threads (for each current year), it seemed logical to include disc information particularly as many were imports. There are still quite a few to be included, but the majority / essentials are all done, and everything newly purchased gets added straight away.
Steely Dan 2vN words + music / 2000 Giant / US Promo Interview CD / PROCD100003
It is something I have thought about doing for some time. Discogs has been recommended by a few friends but it seems to want loads of information that for my needs is superfluous. I only want a basic package that will catalogue LPs, 12"EPs and CDs. I don’t have enough 7"singles to make cataloguing worthwhile. Suggestions would be welcome.
Another user of CLZ Music spp on Ipad and mobile, use their web based software Music Connect for the MacBook so I can access my collection on whatever device I’m on at the time.
Also use Discogs… 
something you can get in the App Store? haven’t looked yet but will do…
what other info does Discogs want? or is it that it’s pushing more info at you than you’d like?
Discogs wants the genre, catalogue number, the pressing number on the inner run-off area of the album and other bits like country of origin for the pressing. All of which is useful if you want to sell but I just want a simple product that I can have artist, title and media type stored, not interested in genre etc.
Yes,in the App Store. It’s subscription based these days. (I got in very early and have a fully functional grandfathered free account)
