The Long-Playing Record
New York in 1948, where one record could hold twenty-five minutes of music.
Related
Time and place
New York, June 1948. Columbia Records released the 33⅓ rpm long-playing record. Twelve inches across, it used finer grooves to extend each side from a few minutes to more than twenty. In 1949 RCA introduced the 45 rpm single, and the two formats competed in the market.
What happened
A 78 rpm side held only three to five minutes, so a symphony was cut across many discs and listeners kept changing records. The LP used vinyl and a slower speed to solve capacity, letting one disc hold a whole concerto or half a symphony. Labels packed several LPs into boxes with covers and notes, and classical music benefited first. Engineers began to design running order for an album.
What changed
The unit of listening moved from the single to the album. Composers and performers could plan a twenty-minute side, pop music gained the album concept, and classical music gained complete recorded versions. Cover design, record criticism and hi-fi equipment grew around it. The LP also made recording a text to compare, setting the album frame that CD and streaming later inherited.
Listen to the turn
Mozart's Requiem runs about forty-three minutes, enough to feel the edge of a disc. The chorus and orchestra of the German Requiem need continuous breath, and the LP reduced the breaks caused by turning records. In the Tristan excerpt listen to harmony that refuses to resolve, then imagine the whole opera in a box of records.
Related
This turn belongs to Contemporary; see Timbre for recorded sound, and solo piano was an early LP bestseller Piano.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Grove Music Online 的 Long-playing record 条目，用于核对 1948 年哥伦比亚唱片公司的 LP 发布与转速
- Michael Chanan, Repeated Takes (Verso, 1995), for the album form and listening habits
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.