#recors

The LP (Long Play), or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a format for phonograph (gramophone) records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. When initially introduced, 12-inch LPs played for a maximum of 45 minutes, divided over two sides, with 10-inch versions carrying a maximum of 35 minutes again over two sides. Owing to marketing attitudes at the time, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows. Popular music appeared only on 10-inch records. Executives believed classical music aficionados would leap at the chance to finally hear a Beethoven symphony or a Mozart concerto without having to flip over a seemingly endless series of four-minute-per-side 78s, but popular music fans, used to consuming one song per side at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. This belief would prove to be erroneous in the end, and by the mid-1950s the 10-inch LP, like its similarly sized 78 rpm record, would lose out in the format wars and be discontinued. Ten-inch records would reappear as mini-albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States and Australia as a marketing alternative.

The LP (Long Play), or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a format for phonograph (gramophone) records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. When initially introduced, 12-inch LPs played for a maximum of 45 minutes, divided over two sides, with 10-inch versions carrying a maximum of 35 minutes again over two sides. Owing to marketing attitudes at the time, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows. Popular music appeared only on 10-inch records. Executives believed classical music aficionados would leap at the chance to finally hear a Beethoven symphony or a Mozart concerto without having to flip over a seemingly endless series of four-minute-per-side 78s, but popular music fans, used to consuming one song per side at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. This belief would prove to be erroneous in the end, and by the mid-1950s the 10-inch LP, like its similarly sized 78 rpm record, would lose out in the format wars and be discontinued. Ten-inch records would reappear as mini-albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States and Australia as a marketing alternative.