Discogs has acquired Wantlister from software developer Stoat Labs in a move towards enhancing its wantlist experience, the online physical music database and marketplace announced Wednesday (June 5).
Wantlister is a Discogs-specific web app, with users connecting their two accounts in order to organize and manage their oft-unwieldy Discogs wantlists. Wantlister, which soft-launched last year, stays in sync with your wantlist and helps users keep things tidy and organized based on several specifications, offering the ability to filter items by price, format, condition and — crucial for shipping costs — seller location. All in all, Wantlister is meant to make shopping for records on Discogs less frustrating and more personal.
Record buyers will also be able to receive real-time alerts as soon as a seller puts your bucket list item — at a price you dig and in a condition you approve of — on the market, and sign up for daily or weekly digests outlining your newly uncluttered wantlist.
Stout Labs CEO Sean Johnson said he and his team built Wantlister “to scratch our own record-collecting itch.”
At launch, Wantlister and wantlist will remain separate entities, however the company said the goal is to eventually integrate the newly acquired technology and all its features into the Discogs platform. A representative also noted that the acquisition is solely for the Wantlister technology and that no personnel from Stoat Labs, a boutique collective of developers based primarily in the southeastern United States, will be joining the Discogs team.
“The Discogs community deserves best-in-class solutions to meet their record-collecting needs, both those developed in-house and those acquired from equally passionate external sources,” said Discogs COO Lloyd Starr. “The acquisition and integration of Wantlister addresses immediate needs that our users have been asking about for years. It is just the latest example of our investment to modernize the Discogs platform for all users.”
Discogs founder and CEO Kevin Lewandowski added, “Last year we made a promise to the Discogs community that they would begin seeing the updates they’ve requested reflected across the platform, and this integration of Wantlister is a perfect example. Wantlist is one of the most popular features on Discogs helping fuel the collector’s journey for all, and just one of many that Discogs is committed to modernizing as the platform continues to evolve.”
