The Analogue Disc Record was the main technology used for storing recorded sound in the 20th century. Its common names included Gramophone record (British English), Phonograph record (American English), record, album, disc, black disc, and (more informally) platter.
The first disc recordings for phonographs or gramophones were commercially marketed in 1895, and they gradually overtook the earlier phonograph cylinder as the dominent medium of recorded sound by the 1910s. By the early 1990s digital media such as the compact disc surpassed the analogue disc in popularity, but analogue discs continue to be made (although in more limited quantities) into the 21st century.
It is an audio storage medium, most commonly used for preserving music. A gramophone record almost always consists of a disc engraved with a single concentric spiral groove in which a stylus or "needle" runs, from the outside edge towards the centre. (A small number early phonograph systems and radio transcription discs started the groove from the inside rather than the edge of the disc, and a small number of novelty records were manufactured with multuple separate grooves.) The record spins at a certain speed, while the needle is held on a mobile arm, which gradually moves toward the centre of the record as it follows the spiral. Since the late 1910s, both sides of the record have usually been used for playing surfaces.
Early analogue disc records were originally made of various materials including hard rubber; in the early 20th century a rather brittle urea-formaldehyde resin (shellac) became common. Earliest speeds of rotation varied widely, but by 1910 records rotating at or about 78 or 80 times in one minute became standard, with 78 rpm becoming the standard in the late 1920s. This gave a common name for such records as "78s" (or Seventy-Eights").
Such records were usually sold separately, but were sometimes sold in collections held in paper sleves in a cardboard or leather book, similar to a photograph album; these were called "Record albums". Also, empty record albums were sold that customers could use to store their disc records in.
After World War II, this was replaced by two competing formats: the 33 1/3 rpm (often just referred to as to 33 rpm), and the 45 rpm. The 33 1/3 rpm LP (for "Long Play") format was developed by Columbia Records and marketed in 1948. RCA Victor had developed the 45 rpm format years earlier but had not marketed it until 1949, in response to Columbia. Both types of new disc used narrower grooves, intended to be played with a smaller stylus, than the old "78s"; for this reason the new records were sometimes called Microgroove.
About the same time the most common substance for making disc records became vinyl. All speeds of records were made in various sizes, mainly 7, 10 and 12 inches diameter; the 7 inch being most common for the 45rpm, the 10 inch for the 78 (and the first few years of 33&1/3 production), and the 12 inch for the 33 from the mid 1950s on.
- A 45 rpm 7 inch was called a "45" (fourty-five) or a "single", because it usually held a single song on each side. It took this role over from the older standard of the 10 inch 78. Early on RCA sold albums of 45s of all types of music including long classical compositions, but after a few years even RCA recognized that the LP format developed by their competitor Columbia was decided to be a more practical format for most formats other than singles.
- A 33 rpm 7 inch was known as an "EP" (extended play), with 2 or 3 songs per side.
- A 33 rpm 12 inch (originally 10 inch) was an "LP" or long-playing record, with from 5 to 10 songs on each side. Because the equivilent amout of music as on an entire album of old style 78s could be fit on a single disc, some people took to refering to these new discs as "Albums" even when refering to a single disc. Run time per side tended to increase from about 15 minutes to nearly 30 minutes, but most LPs during the 70s had a combined run time of 40 to 45 minutes, hence the popularity of the C90 compact audio cassette.
Disc records were extremely popular in their heyday, despite their well-known weaknesses. Throughout most of their period of popularity audio quality was below the best technically possible; however disc records were cheap to manufacture, and easy for the buyer to store and play back.
The discs were fragile. Shellac 78s were brittle easily broke. While vinyl records were less subject to breakage they were more prone to being scratched on their unprotected surface, and were more easily warped out of shape by heat. Scratches could cause audio clicks and pops; the needle could skip to the next groove, bypassing that portion of the audio track; it could skip backward, repeating the same portion of track over and over. Audiophiles would take great care of their records, playing them on often expensive equiptment to get the best sound and impart the least ware to the disc. However even with the best of care keen ears could often detect slight surface noise and audio degregation after two to five playings of a vinyl record. Repeated use degraded the audio quality further.
On the upside however, they were easy and inexpensive to manufacture, so they could be mass-produced. Also, with the advent of long-playing records, the album cover became more than just packaging and protection, and album cover art became an important part of the music marketing and consuming experience.
In the 1980s, vinyl records were gradually replaced in mainstream music consumer markets with the compact disc (CD). Vinyl records continue to be manufactured and sold today, although it is considered to be a niche market comprised of audiophiles, collectors, and disc jockeys (DJs).
Some audiophiles dispute the superiority of CDs. The lack of hiss or background crackling is dependent on the quality of the original recording. The quality and clarity of the sound is very much dependent on the quality of the reproduction equipment, for example the DAC (Digital to analog converter).
The background noise one hears on a vinyl record has been compared to the patina of an oil painting -- a part of the work, not an imperfection to be eliminated; moreover, it has been claimed that some pre-CD recordings were made with this patina in mind.
To further cloud the issue, some pop music released on CD has had crackles and hiss added artificially, for effect. See Lo-fi.