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How to Identify a Vinyl Record: Label, Catalog Number, Barcode and Runout Codes

How to identify a vinyl record and its exact pressing from the center label, catalog number, barcode and runout codes, even when the record has no cover.

Checked October 31, 2026

How do you identify a vinyl record?

Start with the center label: the artist, title, record label and catalog number printed there identify the release. To pin down the exact pressing, add the codes scratched or stamped into the runout (the smooth dead wax between the last song and the label) and, on records made from about 1979 onward, the barcode on the back of the jacket.

Each clue answers a different question. The title tells you which album, the catalog number which release, the barcode which product, and the runout which cut and often which pressing plant. Work through them in that order and most records can be identified in a few minutes, cover or no cover.

Step 1: read the center label

The label is printed for that specific pressing, which makes it the most reliable part of the package. Covers and inner sleeves get swapped between copies; labels do not. Note down everything on it:

Artist and title
The basics. On compilations and soundtracks the label title can differ slightly from the cover.
Record label and logo
Apple, Capitol, Columbia, Harvest and so on. Labels changed their designs over the years, so the exact look (colors, logo, rim text) helps date a pressing. Early UK copies of the White Album, for example, carry a line about resale price conditions on the Apple label that later pressings drop.
Catalog number
Usually the largest code on the label and the same on both sides, such as QE 38112 on Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Side matrix number
A smaller code that differs on each side, such as AL 38112 and BL 38112 on Thriller. It matches the main number in the runout.
The ℗ year
The year the recording was first published, not the year your copy was pressed. A modern reissue of a 1973 album still carries ℗ 1973.

Step 2: use the catalog number

The catalog number is the label's own product code for the release. It appears on the label, usually on the spine and on the back cover, and it is the single most useful search term for a record. Prefixes often tell you the format: the Beatles' Yesterday and Today is T 2553 in mono and ST 2553 in stereo, and the UK White Album is PMC 7067/8 in mono and PCS 7067/8 in stereo.

A catalog number identifies a release, not a moment in time. Popular albums stayed in print under the same number for years: the 1978 UK white vinyl reissue of the White Album still says PCS 7067-8. To separate the 1968 copy from the 1978 copy you need the label design and the runout.

Step 3: check for a vinyl barcode

A vinyl record barcode only helps with newer records, because barcodes arrived on albums late. Billboard reported in October 1978 that CBS was the first major US label to commit to bar coding, starting early in 1979, and that until then only small labels such as Inner City and Pacific Arts had barcoded product. By June 1979 Capitol, Warner Bros., MCA and Elektra/Asylum had signed up too, with Warner Bros. starting on selected new LPs that August. So if an album first released in the 1960s or early 1970s has a barcode printed on the jacket, you are holding a later pressing.

Records sold in the US carry a 12 digit UPC-A barcode; European records use the 13 digit EAN-13, an extension of the UPC with one extra leading digit. The barcode often contains the catalog number: the US Thriller's is 0 7464-38112-1, with 38112 in the middle. Capitol also added codes to new printings of older jackets, which is another reason a barcode on a classic album points to a later copy.

A barcode identifies the product, not the pressing. US copies of Thriller pressed at different plants share the same barcode and are told apart by the runout, so a barcode lookup gets you to the release and the runout takes you the rest of the way.

Step 4: read the runout codes

The matrix number is the code stamped or handwritten into the runout groove area. It was meant for the pressing plant, but collectors use it to tell editions apart. Its main part usually matches the side number on the label, and a suffix gives the cut: 12345-3 means the third cut of that side. The same area can also carry plant codes or logos and the initials or signature of the engineer who cut the lacquer.

Real examples show how much this narrows things down. A first UK stereo White Album reads YEX 709-1 on side one, where -1 is the first cut. A US Fleetwood Mac Rumours (Warner Bros. BSK 3010, 1977) reads BSK-1-3010 along with MASTERED BY CAPITOL, the initials KP and a plant mark that changes from pressing to pressing. Thriller copies pressed at Pitman, New Jersey and Carrollton, Georgia share the label number AL 38112 but carry different suffixes and plant codes in the dead wax.

Read the runout under a strong lamp held at a low angle, and write down everything exactly as it appears, including small symbols, on every side.

Step 5: look at the cover, but trust the disc

The jacket adds useful detail: the catalog number on the spine, the label's address and printer credits on the back, a barcode, stickers, price codes and the country of manufacture. Gatefold construction, laminated or textured board and how the sleeve opens can also separate early and later editions, as with the White Album's original top-loading sleeve.

But covers move between records. If the cover and the disc disagree, the disc wins: identify the record from its labels and runouts, and treat a mismatched jacket as a separate item.

When the record has no cover

A bare disc is not a problem. Everything you need to identify the pressing is on the vinyl itself: the label gives the artist, title, label and catalog number, and the runout gives the matrix number, cut and plant. Search the catalog number first, then compare the runout codes with the known pressings of that release. A plain or handwritten label with no catalog number may be a test pressing or a promo; those have their own clues.

How a vinyl identifier app helps

Typing codes into a search box is slow and easy to get wrong, especially with tiny runout text. VinylLens identifies a record from a photo of its center label (or its cover or barcode), tells you which pressing it is, and shows its value for each condition grade. You can then check the match against the runout codes on that album's pressing list.

What to check first

Take one record and go in this order: photograph both labels, write down the catalog number, look for a barcode on the back, then read the runout on both sides. Search by catalog number or barcode, open the album's pressing list, and match your runout codes to a specific pressing. Only then grade the disc and the sleeve, because value depends on both the pressing and its condition.

Sources

VinylLens app

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