Discogs, the world’s leading music discovery and record-collecting platform, has released its Year in Review 2025, offering a data-driven look at the albums, artists, and trends that defined a record-breaking year in music collecting.
Unlike traditional year-end lists, Discogs’ review is shaped entirely by collectors themselves, reflecting what fans added to their shelves, searched for in the Marketplace, and catalogued in the community-built music database. The report captures both global trends and the unique musical tastes of collectors across nine regions, including the U.S. and Canada, Latin America, the U.K. and Ireland, Western and Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries, the Middle East and Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.
Global Winners
- Artist of the Year: The Beatles
- Album of the Year: The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift
- Reissue of the Year: Channel Orange by Frank Ocean
- 7-Inch of the Year: Fortnight by Taylor Swift
- Label of the Year: Columbia
Taylor Swift stood out as the only contemporary act to compete with legacy artists such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Madonna. Her album The Life of a Showgirl earned Global Album of the Year, while Fortnight was named Global 7-Inch of the Year.
Regional preferences varied, with classical and jazz icons Beethoven, Mozart, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Tatsuro Yamashita dominating East and Southeast Asia. Latin America favored Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXIIand Chico Buarque’s Dois, while the Nordic countries highlighted The Hellacopters’ Overdriver and Ghost’s Skeletá over Swift’s release. Sleep Token also emerged as a notable presence, appearing alongside major pop and legacy acts in multiple lists.
In addition to the Year in Review, Discogs recently relaunched its mobile app, offering a faster, more intuitive experience for discovering, cataloguing, and purchasing vinyl. The upgraded app features an improved barcode scanner, instant notifications for new Marketplace listings, and streamlined search and checkout functions, giving collectors easier access to the platform on the go.
Full lists of global and regional winners are available on Discogs’ website: https://www.discogs.com/year-in-review.
