Columbia Introduces First LP Record
2012/06/20 4 Comments
On June 21, 1948, Columbia Records introduced the first LP, or “long playing” record.
At the time the LP was introduced, nearly all phonograph records for home use were made of an abrasive (and therefore noisy) shellac compound, employed a much larger groove, and played at approximately 78 rpm, limiting the playing time of a 12-inch record to less than five minutes per side.
33 1/3 RPM Long-playing Record
The new product was a 12 or 10-inch fine-grooved disc made of vinyl and played with a smaller-tipped “microgroove” stylus at a speed of 33⅓ rpm. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for more than 20 minutes. Only the microgroove standard was truly new, as both vinyl and the 33⅓ rpm speed had been used for special purposes for many years, as well as in one unsuccessful earlier attempt to introduce a long-playing record for home use. Although the LP was especially suited to classical music because of its extended continuous playing time, it also allowed a collection of ten or more typical “pop” music recordings to be put on a single disc.
Previously, such collections, as well as longer classical music broken up into several parts, had been sold as sets of 78 rpm records in a specially imprinted “record album” consisting of individual record sleeves bound together in book form. The use of the word “album” persisted for the one-disc LP equivalent.
About thejazzmonger
I still have more than 300 “LPs” neatly arranged alphabetically in genres. And I have a really nice, at the time in the 80s, turntable to play them. Do I? No sadly. And I admit that it’s mostly laziness. Getting up to flip them. Bt when I do I remember the tactile part of listening to music. I think that is a missing component.
Now what to do? Most are now right there in iTunes or Amazon though some will never be. I had planned to digitize some but as time goes by it just ain’t happening.
Yeah, Cotton, iTunes is convenient but it sure is ruining music. The tsunami-like trend toward handling all music in Mp3 format is a tragedy. An Mp3 file carries only about 25% of the musical data of an original recording.
Just when we arrive at affordable technologies like DVD players and, even better, Blu-ray we are willingly throwing away most of the sonic richness in the music. When I digitize music I use Microsoft’s WAV format which is the closest by a significant margin to preserving 100% of the data bytes of an original source CD.
Among serious audiophiles, there is a burgeoning movement to return to vinyl (your 300+ LP gems). There are new developments on linear-tracking tone arms, high-end record cleaners and anti-static gizmos.
Stereophile magazine now features a special section on Analog sound, plus many ads for turntables and such.
I fell in love with LPs after I bought my first one in the early 70s, and every new one I bought in the years after felt like getting a precious jewel for a dirt cheap price. Thanks for a great post!
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