A 'vast advance' in the 1990s was monthly Record Collector magazine [is it still going..??]
Buying, or standing reading it in WH Smiths for as long as the shop assistant's tolerated,
was a ritual, in hope that an artist of interest might be covered that month...

A slight impovement on life before this magazine,
but moving home involved lugging heavy boxes of mags
from one city or town to another..

I had to throw out all mine 15 years ago when they went mouldy in storage...

So for all it's flaws, I prefer modern life and site's like discogs...
Serious music bloggers should already know well enough to be wary
of discog's reliability...???