MP3 of the Day

On this Day in 1950 RCA Victor announced it would start manufacturing long-playing (LP) records. One side of a 12-inch LP would now play for 23 minutes, compared with four minutes for one side of a standard 78 rpm record. RCA Victor's announcement was actually an admission of defeat, as Columbia had introduced the LP two years earlier, while RCA had countered with the 7-inch, 45 rpm single as their microgroove competitor. The idea was that "albums" would continue to be multi-disc sets of short records, as with 78s. Columbia won, in the album sweepstakes at least, and RCA caved and started making LPs. 45s continued as a medium for singles, propelled mostly by jukeboxes, and even 78s carried on limpingly in the jukebox market until about 1960. Today we have All The Records On The Radio Are Shite by BALLBOY. Happy Friday!