Record Collector continues to serve the collector, offering retrospective features, full discographies and in depth interviews. Its outlook has expanded to embrace the phenomenon of collecting via the internet, whether it be through online trading, or downloading music. RC also includes Q&A pages where readers can have questions about their rare and obscure records answered; some of the largest news and reviews sections in music print; one of the few fanzine review columns in print; a focus on curio releases from around the world; interviews with a variety of collectors, who talk through their personal collections; and monthly features on eBay and record fairs.

From being the only monthly music publication for the majority of the 80s, Record Collector has maintained its popularity well into the 2000s. Having encouraged a few trends in the reissue/collecting market, most importantly of all, RC has made the collecting market more widely established and accepted, and has remained an important publication for collectors and music enthusiasts alike.

This issue, dated Christmas 2004, has a cover story on Deep Purple; other featured artists include Killing Joke, The Tubes, Billy Bragg, Queen, Ron Sexsmith and Boz Scaggs. There is also a tribute to the legendary British DJ John Peel, who died in October.