How to Identify an Unknown White Label Record

The fastest reliable way to identify a white label record is to transcribe the matrix etching in the runout groove (the deadwax) and search that exact string in quotes. The matrix string is the durable identifier for these records: artist and title may be wrong, missing, or never written down, but the runout etching was cut into the lacquer at the pressing plant and stays with the record forever. Below is the full process, in the order that actually works, ending with what to do when every conventional tool fails.

If you're not sure what you're holding, start with what is a white label record to separate white labels from promos, test pressings, acetates, and bootlegs. Then work through the steps.

Step 1: Inspect the record physically

Before you touch any database, squeeze the physical object for information. Unidentified records often carry more clues than people notice on the first pass.

Check the label itself. Even a "blank" white label may have a stamp, a handwritten catalogue number, or a partially rubbed-off sticker. Look under raking light: hold the record at a low angle to a lamp so the light skims the surface. Pressure marks from a removed sticker, and faint stamp ink that reads as nothing under direct light, often become visible. Do the same for both sides; the A and B labels frequently differ.

Check the sleeve. Generic disco sleeves and company sleeves sometimes carry a stamped title, a distribution mark, or a date written by a previous owner. A handwritten date on a sleeve isn't proof, but it bounds the era. If the record came from a DJ's collection, note anything written on the sleeve or label: old tracklistings and radio-station stickers are real evidence.

Also check what kind of pressing you actually have, because it changes what the matrix will tell you. A test pressing with a plant label, a stamped promo, and a fully blank bootleg each need slightly different handling. The physical tells are covered in promo, test pressing, or bootleg.

Step 2: Find and transcribe the runout etching

This is the step that matters most. Everything between the last groove and the label, the deadwax, is where the pressing information lives. On white labels it's often the only information anywhere on the record.

Work under raking light and rotate the record slowly. Transcribe every character on both sides, exactly as cut:

The main matrix or catalogue string, for example STEAM-001-A1 or WHT-12-A △.
Stamper letters and numbers after the main string (A-1, B2, -1-1).
Crossed-out characters. Engineers sometimes correct a digit by scratching it out and cutting a new one. Write down both the crossed-out and the corrected character; a crossed-out letter can distinguish two otherwise identical pressings.
Hand-etched versus machine-stamped portions. A string like DMS-003-A with a small etched EG after it may carry an engineer's or cutting-room mark worth recording.
Anything that looks like noise: tiny symbols, squiggles, a drawn smiley. People search for these.

Write it as a single normalized string per side, something like STEAM-001-A1 (crossed-out: 7) EG. This transcription is your identifier from here on. For the full technique: where to look on 7, 10, and 12 inch formats, how to tell the lacquer number from the stamper, how to read mirror-image or faint etchings: see how to read matrix and runout codes. Take a clear photo of the deadwax under raking light as well. You will want it later.

Step 3: Search the exact string

Search the transcribed string on Discogs and on Google, in double quotes: "STEAM-001-A1". Quotes force exact matching, which is what you want; matrix strings are full of characters that search engines otherwise treat as punctuation or noise.

On Discogs, paste the string into the search bar and also into the "matrix" field of the advanced search. Plenty of records with blank or generic labels are in the database, filed under the right artist because someone before you did this work. If the string matches a release, check the images: compare your deadwax against the submitted photos character by character, because a repress or a bootleg can share most of a string with the original while differing in one stamper digit.

Try variants if the exact string misses: without the side suffix ("STEAM-001"), with the crossed-out character instead of the corrected one, with and without the engineer mark. Also search the string plus the word "vinyl" or "white label" on Google. Forum threads, old wantlists, and shop blog posts are indexed there and not on Discogs.

Two honest caveats. First, a Discogs hit on a white label often gives you the artist but thin metadata, because these releases were never properly documented. Second, if the record is unofficial, it may be documented nowhere at all. Discogs purged roughly 400,000 unofficial listings in 2017 and blocks their sale; it also deleted the sold-price history for them. Background on that, and on why your record may be absent even if it's real and collectible, is in why Discogs won't list your record.

Step 4: Try audio identification

If the matrix search comes up empty, try Shazam or a similar audio-ID app. Play the record through a clean signal, hold the phone close, and try a few sections, including the intro and any vocal passage.

Go in expecting failure. These apps match against databases of commercially released audio. An unreleased mix, a promo-only remix, or an unofficial pressing is usually not in those databases by definition. If the track was never commercially released, there is nothing to match against, no matter how good the app is. A match, when it happens, usually means your record contains a released track in an unreleased context: useful, but it identifies the song, not the pressing. Treat an audio-ID hit as a lead about the music, not as an identification of the physical record.

Step 5: When everything fails

If the label is blank, the matrix string matches nothing, and audio ID returns nothing, you have a genuinely unidentified record. This is common, and it is not the end of the process. It is where the matrix string starts doing its real job as a permanent handle for the record.

First, check the Archive on Unlabeled. It's a public archive of unidentified records catalogued by matrix string. Search your transcription there: if someone else has a copy with the same runout etching, their entry may carry information yours doesn't, and two copies of the same unknown pressing are stronger evidence than one.

If there's no match, add your record to the Archive with your full transcription, your deadwax photos, and a short audio clip. The community that digs through these records recognizes label handwriting, pressing-plant habits, engineer marks, and vocalists. Humans identify these records; no database will.

If you want to sell the record while it's still unidentified, you can list it by matrix string on Unlabeled with an audio preview, so a buyer can hear exactly what the record sounds like before paying for a mystery disc. That "listen first" model exists precisely because these records can't be sold by artist and title. Start at /sell, or browse /listings to see how other unidentified records are presented by their runout strings.

While the record sits unidentified, grade and document it properly so the eventual identification slots into a clean record of condition: grading unidentified and unofficial pressings covers how to do that without a reference copy.

The short version

Inspect label and sleeve under raking light; note every stamp, sticker, and handwritten mark.
Transcribe the deadwax etching on both sides, every character, including crossed-out parts, and photograph it.
Search the exact string in quotes on Discogs and Google; try variants.
Try Shazam, expecting it to fail on unreleased or unofficial audio, and treat any hit as identifying the song, not the pressing.
Check the matrix string against the Unlabeled Archive; if it's new, add it with photos and audio so the community can help, and list it by matrix with an audio preview if you're selling.

Artist and title are guesses until proven. The matrix string is the identifier that survives.