Sound On, WATA’s Grading Music CDs

You didn’t think we were stopping at DVDs and Blu-rays did you?

Turn up the volume and press play because WATA is now accepting music CD submissions. We’ve been authenticating and grading video game-related soundtracks, but this is our first foray into non-visual and non-video game-related media. Now, you can submit movies, video games, and music in one submission.

In April 2023, we launched our new case for jewel-cased products including soundtracks, PS1, and Dreamcast. And those beautiful low-profile WATA cases are perfect for encapsulating your favorite music CDs.

While you can stream music pretty much everywhere, CDs are still widely produced and bought worldwide, which makes CD grading one of the most accessible products we offer. New-release video games are often $60-$70, while new CDs are widely available for $10-$20.

Of course, rare and valuable CDs exist, including signed variants. For first pressings, error copies, and other rare and valuable CDs, customers can expect to see various price ranges similar to vintage video games.

Head of WATA Claire Shelton said, “One thing that excites me about offering music is the variety of genres and artists which we will see. Generally speaking, most video games exist within a sociocultural lane, which isn’t terribly broad. With music, those limitations do not exist, so we expect to see types of music submissions for which there are no video game parallels. This launch allows us to tap into customer bases that may have little interest in grading video games. Music is truly the most universal art, and we’re thrilled to have a service offering where everyone can think of a CD they’d love to have encapsulated.”

Given that CDs share many factors with jewel case-sized video games, customers will have little to no learning curve applying the WATA grading scale to their favorite tunes. One unique aspect of CDs is the significant use of stickers to hype up content or characteristics, while video games mostly print that information on the cover art directly. WATA accepts standard-size jewel case, double jewel case, standard and gatefold sleeve, and certain Digi-Paks for submission. With so many genres and artists in the music industry, the collecting possibilities are virtually endless. We can’t wait to see your favorites in the grading room. Start your submission today.