We all know one.
The person with the record collection. The gig T-shirts. The shelves full of music books. The playlists for every possible mood. Ask them what they want for their birthday or Christmas and you’ll probably get the least helpful answer of all:
“I don’t know.”
Buying for someone who really loves music should be easy. After all, you already know what they’re interested in.
Except sometimes that makes it harder.
Do you buy them another album and risk choosing one they already own? A piece of artist merchandise that may or may not be their style? Or another generic “music lover” gift that doesn’t really say anything about why music matters to them?
The best gifts for music lovers aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest band logo on the front. Often, they’re the ones that understand something much more personal: everyone has their own soundtrack.
Start with their music taste, not their collection
You don’t need to know every record somebody owns to choose a thoughtful music gift.
Think instead about the music that feels like them.
What genre do they always come back to? Which decade would they happily return to for one night? What did they listen to when they were younger? Which gigs do they still talk about years later?
Music is unusually good at holding memories. A particular song can take us back to a first concert, a summer holiday, a friendship, a relationship or simply a version of ourselves we’d almost forgotten about.
That gives you much more to work with than simply asking, “Which band do they like?”
Give them something they can discover
Part of the pleasure of loving music is discovering something you weren’t expecting.
That’s why a surprise can make such a good gift for a music fan — particularly someone who normally buys the albums, books and merchandise they want for themselves.
A music mystery box turns the unwrapping itself into part of the experience.
At CODA, our Music Mystery Boxes are individually put together using the music taste you share with us. Each contains 6 Signature Tracks and 4 surprise Bonus Tracks, combining music-inspired keepsakes, nostalgia and discovery.
You don’t need to provide someone’s entire musical history. A favourite genre, colour and preferred format — cassette, CD or vinyl — gives us somewhere to start.
And yes, you can absolutely order one for yourself. We won’t tell anyone.
Turn a card into part of the gift
Cards are usually the bit you read before getting to the present.
But they don’t have to be.
Music can say things that are surprisingly difficult to put into a card, which is why CODA music cards include a song accessed by QR code.
Open the card. Scan. Press play.
A birthday suddenly has a soundtrack. A friendship card can bring back years of shared memories. A love card can say something in three minutes that would take considerably more space to write.
For a music lover, that small extra detail can make the card part of the memory rather than something that gets forgotten once the presents have been opened.
Give them their next music read
For someone who loves both books and music, a biography or autobiography seems like an obvious choice.
There’s just one problem: which one?
If their bookshelves are already well stocked, choosing can become almost as risky as buying an album.
A blind date with a music book makes that uncertainty part of the fun.
The Backstage Read is CODA’s surprise pre-loved music biography or autobiography, chosen by genre and wrapped so the artist’s identity remains classified until it’s opened.
It also comes with music-inspired reading extras, making it less about simply buying another book and more about giving someone a new music story to discover.
And because the book is pre-loved, an existing music biography gets its own encore rather than sitting forgotten on somebody else’s shelf.
Give a memory rather than more stuff
Not every music gift needs to be a physical object.
Sometimes the best gift is simply an excuse to make another memory.
Tickets to see a favourite artist are the obvious example, but you could also plan a trip to a record fair, visit an independent record shop together, book a tribute night, see a local band or arrange an evening listening to albums you both love.
You could even make a playlist based on your shared history.
The important bit isn’t necessarily how much you spend. It’s showing that you’ve thought about their relationship with music, rather than just the fact that they like it.
What if you don’t know their favourite artist?
Don’t panic.
You really don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of somebody’s Spotify history to buy them a music-inspired gift.
Genre is often enough.
Someone who loves classic rock, 80s pop, soul and Motown or 90s indie has already given you a huge clue about the sort of music world they enjoy.
And sometimes avoiding one specific artist actually makes for a more interesting present. Instead of buying yet another item featuring a band they already own plenty of, you’re giving them something inspired by their wider love of music.
The best music gifts feel personal
Ultimately, buying for the music lover who has everything isn’t really about finding something they don’t already own.
It’s about finding something that feels like it was chosen with them in mind.
Their favourite albums. Their first gigs. The songs they know every word to. The music they inherited from their parents and the artists they’ve discovered for themselves.
Those are the things that make somebody’s soundtrack theirs.
And that’s exactly what we believe at CODA.
Every life has a soundtrack.
The best music gifts simply find a way to celebrate it.
Music. Memories. Moments.