Last Updated on 27 January 2026 by Massimo M.
What are vinyl record catalog numbers and what are they for?
What you need to know about vinyl record catalog numbers
A catalog number is an identification number assigned by a music label when a new musical work is released. You can find this number on vinyl records (33, 45, 78 rpm), audio cassettes, 8-track tapes, CDs, and DVDs. This code may contain letters and numbers that are set by the record label to help distinguish the different formats used for a single music release.
For example Selling England by the pound by Genesis has the catalog number FC 6060 for the vinyl version and FCM TP-6060 for the eight-track tape.
Most record labels also add a letter or number to represent their label.
Additionally, a single music release might have a different catalog number depending on the country as it might be released by different labels for different countries.
An example would be “Abbey Road” by The Beatles, where it has PCS 7088 and SO 383 as catalog numbers. The former is from the United States, supplied by Apple/Parlophone, and the latter is from Canada, supplied by Capital Records.
To simplify, the catalog number can be interpreted as the fingerprint of your vinyl record which identifies it and gives it a specific ID, making it unique, identifiable and traceable.
What you need to know about vinyl record catalog numbers
Let’s look at this example. The catalog number is 45-2273. The American label Excello records used sequential numbers for its catalogue. Since they started in the 78 rpm era, when the new formats came along they added “45-” in front to indicate that it was a 45 rpm vinyl record.
Another example. Let’s say we release a record. If we create our own record label, we can have the catalog number for our first release look like this MY-01. So we can have MY-02 and MY-03 for our second and third versions. The M and Y in the catalog number are from My best records, maybe!, and the numbers indicate the order of releases. As I mentioned above, letters or numbers can also allow us to identify in which format the music was published.
For example, we have 45 and 78 rpm vinyl records, cassettes and CDs for our seventh music release, so we can have MY45RE-07, MY78RE-07, MYCASS-07 and MYCD-07 for each format respectively.
To stay in the real world, Factory Records, a Manchester record label, was one of the well-known labels for their catalog numbers. They always used FAC at the beginning of catalog numbers.
They are usually printed on the spine of the album or on the back of the vinyl record cover, however they can also be found inside and printed on the label stuck on the record.
Why is the catalog number important?
After talking about what a catalog number is, what it looks like and where to find it on a vinyl record, let’s move on to why it is important information to find on the record we own or want to buy.
First it gives us basic information like which country it comes from, which record label released it and what RPM it has.
It can also help identify genuine copies from counterfeit ones.
Finally, it is an indispensable element for managing your collection. To obtain information on the disc you have, you probably use online tools such as the very famous Discogs. Well, without the catalog number it is very difficult to identify the copy in our possession when using this tool.
We have understood that the catalog number is one of the useful elements to establish, with other things, whether what we have in our hands is a first printing, whether the edition is rare, out of print or imported. He’s not the only one obviously. If you are interested in learning more about the topic you can read the article we dedicated to how to recognize original pressings of vinyl records. I hope that this short guide is useful to you and I invite you to read the others guides that you can find on the dedicated page.
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