78 RPM Records

Record albums are typically vinyl, gramophone records (phonograph records), generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were introduced unsuccessfully by RCA in 1931 and successfully by Columbia in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music the second being with extended play or EP albums. Magnetic tape, also introduced in 1948, offered higher fidelity, and the advantage of enabling a listener to hear up to ninety minutes of music without turning the tape over, and audio cassettes, introduced in the 1960s, offered a more convenient way to listen to music, though they boasted a shorter playing time per side than reel-to-reel tape. In the 1980s, compact discs effectively overthrew LPs completely as the primary listening method for recorded music.