Today, June 18, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the unveiling of the 33RPM LP record. I’ve decided to mark the occasion with the following brief history of the LP’s invention and early years, adapted from a history of the record industry I wrote in 2003-2004.
A HISTORY OF THE LONG-PLAYING RECORD, copyright 2008 by Louis Rastelli
Although the 33 RPM LP came out in June, 1948, a number of record companies had experimented with longer-playing formats during the 1920s. The first functional 33 RPM records were 20 inches in diameter and were used to provide sound in movie theatres. In 1930, RCA Victor tried to market a 16-inch version of these records for consumers, but they could only be played so many times before they wore out. This wasn’t an issue with radio stations, who rarely repeated a record on-air more than once. By 1932, three-quarters of all radio stations used these transcription discs some of the time for such things as sound effects or to record certain shows for future re-broadcasting. Some shady companies soon began using the technology to bootleg shows off the air and re-selling them to small radio stations. (These bootlegs now make up most of the existing recordings we have of early radio.)
The long-playing 33 RPM record we know today was invented by Colombia Records. The head of the Colombia team that developed it was Peter Goldmark, a noted smart guy who also invented colour television. His boss, Ed Wallerstein, had been at RCA Victor in the early 1930s when they invented the 33 RPM radio transcription disks. Wallerstein claimed that Columbia planned to develop the LP in the 30s but was interrupted by the war.
Goldmark used a “total engineering” approach that analyzed every component of the sound reproduction system, considering all possibilities and materials for everything from the needle and tone-arm to the speakers and amplifiers to the record itself. He decided to focus on where the needle sat in the groove and work outwards from that point, arranging every other part to function smoothly without causing the needle to wear out.
During the process, Goldmark’s team ended up inventing the condenser microphone to exploit the full range of the new record (although it turns out the Germans had also developed one during the war). Colombia also invented the modern speaker while they were at it, using elastically suspended cones and vented cabinets for the first time.
The LP length was fixed at about 45 minutes in order to corner the classical market; Wallerstein listened to hundreds of operas and symphonies and concluded 95% were no longer than 45 minutes.
Once the inventions were perfected, Colombia wisely gave major manufacturers all the plans they needed to start making players for the new speed. They also developed and sold (at cost) an adapter that let people play the new LPs on their old record players. Finally, Columbia completely redesigned their pressing plants so as to mass-produce the new records.
Considering the years of preparation that went into all of this, it’s surprising that when the president of Columbia met with the president of RCA Victor to tell him about the LP that the RCA president had no clue something was in the works. Remembering how earlier, heavily-patented long-player ideas by Edison never took off, Columbia decided not to patent the LP and asked RCA Victor to adopt the format. The head of RCA was reportedly outraged that “little Columbia” would even suggest that RCA Victor, the very inventors of radio and 78s, encourage its competitor’s inventions.
But Columbia wasn’t going to let RCA Victor’s rejection derail the unveiling of the LP. They officially released it on June 18, 1948 with a press conference that saw Wallerstein standing beside a 10-foot-high stack of 78s, holding a foot-high stack of LPs which he said contained just as much music. He then played a scratchy 78 followed by the same selection on LP, and the crowd applauded the vastly clearer sound. Columbia’s ads soon claimed that “the LP’s advantages will eventually make it the only way to play music in the home.”
RCA Victor began trying to prove that claim wrong the minute they found out about the LP. They started by digging through their archives for failed experiments, and came across an automatic record-changing device conceived in 1938. RCA thought they could one-up the LP by creating a record-changer fast enough to essentially allow people to create their own long-playing experiences (much as digital files or CD-ripping allow users to eliminate the songs they don’t care for on full CDs.)
The record-changer design included specifications for a new type of record, which RCA Victor also revived, knowing that they would also have to improve on the sound of 78s. The new record would be 7 inches in diameter, just like the original Victor 78s from the 1890s, and they’d have a bigger center hole so as to fall into place on the changer without wobbling on the way down. Also, the outer edge of the record and the record label were a tad thicker than the rest of the record, so that the grooves wouldn’t rub together when records were stacked on top of each other. Some claim that the speed of 45 RPM was arrived at by subtracting 33 from 78, just so RCA could spite Columbia, but in fact, the speed was a function of the groove size and record diameter. RCA hesitated at first to call their new record 45s, since Columbia had been hyping the 45-minute length of their new LPs all year. But after LPs came out, people began calling 78s 78s (they were just called “records” before that), so it seemed inevitable that 45s would get called 45s.
RCA spent $2 million in the first 6 months promoting their new format. They also spent huge amounts converting equipment at pressing plants, and setting up speedier distribution systems to take advantage of the lighter weight of the new records. They promoted the format to stores by promising the ability to ship records almost overnight in order to stock shelves within days of a record becoming a surprise hit. This meant that the 45 not only replaced the 78, but also made regional hits and novelty songs easier to turn into national hits, and increased the importance of “hit singles” in general to record company profits.
The price of 45s was first set at 65 cents but fell to 49 cents after initial sales were disappointing. By comparison, pop 78s had long cost 50 cents or less by then, and Columbia’s first LPs were priced at $1.25.
Although it was obvious the market viewed 45s as a newfangled version of the 78, RCA still contorted themselves trying to convince people they were also better than LPs and perfect for classical music and soundtracks. They sold small cardboard box-set “albums” of 45s that you could stack in a certain order on your record changer to listen to an LP’s worth of material, and touted the space savings with claims that “more than 150 singles or 18 symphonies fit on one foot of bookshelf space.” However, for most classical works and some soundtracks, the sound of the music fading out every three minutes or so and fading back in after a bunch of mechanical noises just couldn’t compare with the seamless play of LPs.
RCA didn’t take long to give up on these box-sets and start producing LPs themselves. However, they didn’t exactly lose the “battle of the speeds,” either, since Columbia began making 45s themselves by 1950. (For a brief while, they tried to compete with the 45 by issuing 7-inch records that played at 33 RPM.) But if there was a clear winner by 1950, it was actually the 78, which in that year outsold both 45s and LPs combined.
Sales of LPs by 1950 were strong enough to convince most that it was here to stay; by 1951 it seemed obvious the 45 would at least eventually replace the 78. But if it weren’t for the US market and RCA’s stubbornness, the 45 may never have lasted, because internationally it only appeared later, if at all. (The first LPs in Europe appeared in 1952 and in some places, the late 50s, with 45s taking even longer. The Soviet Union never adopted 45s at all: their 7-inch singles were all 33 RPM, unwittingly following Columbia’s 1949 motto that “one speed is all you need!”)
Manufacturers of record players helped ensure the multi-speed universe by selling models that played at 33, 45 or 78 RPM by 1950. Aside from soundtracks and operas, LPs were used as collections of hit singles aimed mainly at adults, while young people were assumed to want only 45s. The LP format helped spur the be-bop and post-bop jazz movement, allowing musicians to stretch out on long jams and solos. But listeners still seemed more comfortable with just two songs per record: in 1952, sales of 45s were more than double that of LPs.
Although it was a short transition when compared with the ongoing multiplicity of digital formats today, the format confusion of the “war of the speeds” saw most listeners wait to see who won before taking sides. Record sales dropped during both years that new formats came out, and took five years to recover to 1947 levels.
But the drop in sales was also due to the fact that most top executives at the majors were growing old and conservative in their musical tastes, refusing to try new things to attract young buyers and sticking to a “they’ll like what we tell them to like” mentality. People had a limited appetite, though, for bland pop songs, light classics and disposable novelty hits, and in 1949 only one out of every 25 songs released by the majors turned a profit at all.
By the mid-50s, all of this had changed: a huge boom in independent labels and new styles of music was underway, and a new generation of record buyers were buying millions of records in both new formats. The 78 was fading fast: 45s surpassed them in sales in 1955, and most North American companies stopped making them entirely in 1959.
By 2008, both 45s and LPs have been reduced to a small fraction of the recorded music market, but there are signs that this is beginning to change: 2007 saw double-digit growth of vinyl for the first time in nearly twenty years, and LPs are beginning to reappear in the larger music chains and even some department stores. Record players can be found in most home electronics shops, and the many billions of records manufactured in the 20th century continue to trade hands on eBay, in charity shops and in a growing number of used record stores. It’s a testament to the industrial design capabilities of Colombia and RCA that the formats they invented roughly 60 years after the birth of the record industry are still in use 60 years later. And unlike the plethora of other audio formats that have since come and gone, vinyl records are not likely to disappear anytime soon.
Here are some links to recent news articles talking about the current resurgence of vinyl:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/10/vinyl.records.ap/index.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/20947918/vinyl_returns_in_the_age_of_mp3
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/06/02/vinyl_goes_from_throwback_to_comeback?mode=PF
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/366103_vinyl07.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/10/sunday/main3813468.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tggLYE87Ed0&feature=related
Here is a website that links to articles about vinyl and the record industry:
http://www.musicsun.com/search.php?query=vinyl&quelle=news&language=en
And lastly, here are links to some of the full version of the articles I’ve written about the history of the record industry:
http://www.fishpiss.com/archives/46
http://www.fishpiss.com/archives/47
http://www.fishpiss.com/archives/128
http://www.fishpiss.com/archives/187
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