Ngā puoro arotini - Popular music

Wellington City Libraries has a huge music collection for you to borrow from — over 20,000 CDs as well as around 1300 albums on vinyl available to borrow and enjoy.

CD collection

At Wellington City Libraries we have a large collection of CDs (well over 20,000) for you to borrow for free. Whether Matmos or Minogue, Strokes or Stockhausen, RZA or AWB you may very well find just what you were looking for in our collection.

How much does it cost?

From February 1st 2023, Wellington City Libraries will be running a one year trial where all CDs will be free to borrow.

Where can I find CDs?

Te Awe Library

Like the hands-on approach to finding music? You can find our browsable collection of CDs upstairs at Te Awe Brandon Library, with roughly 5000 items available covering a wide range of genres.

Genres available at Te Awe include: Popular, Jazz, Blues, Metal, Hip-Hop, Electronica, Soul/R&B, Folk, Classical, Experimental, and World Music – and most of these genre splits are there for separate New Zealand and Wellington music collections if you want to keep it local.

Order from Off-site Storage

A further 23,000 items are available to reserve from our storage facility, Te Pātaka – while you can't go through these in person, you can use our catalogue to filter down to the 'Off-Site Storage' collection and 'Music CD' formats to explore what's available. All items are free to reserve with a valid library card.

Small collection at Ngā Puna Waiora | Newtown

Ngā Puna Waiora | Newtown also has a small selection of World Music CDs.

How long are CDs issued for?

CDs are issued for 1 week, and can be renewed once for an additional week.

Portable CD Players for loan

Once upon a time, most houses had a dedicated home electronic device that could play CDs through a home stereo set up or a television. However, the advent of music streaming services has replaced a majority of these physical devices and cars no longer come with CD players.

While we still have a diverse collection of physical media, we realise that some of our patrons no longer have a way to appreciate our extensive music and audiobook collections, so we are excited to now offer portable CD players for loan. Find out more on the service page below:

Borrow a CD player from the library

Vinyl Collection

Vinyl, records, LPs – they're all the same thing, produce great sound, are once again in high demand, and Wellington City Libraries has vinyl available to borrow from selected branches.

How much does it cost, and how long can I borrow them for?

Vinyl are $1 to borrow for 1 week.

Where can I find Vinyl?

Browse vinyl on the shelves at:

• Ngā Puna Waiora | Newtown
• Te Awe (CBD)
• Te Māhanga | Karori
• Waitohi | Johnsonville

Note: Newtown's AV collection is a much smaller collection, consisting of a selection World Music CDs and Wellington/New Zealand vinyl.

Or place a reserve (reserves are free), and have the album you're interested in sent to your local branch.