For the first 50 years of the recorded music industry, everyone had to make do with scratchy, fragile 78 RPM records.
These 10-inch discs dated from the late 1800s and generally worked fine. It wasn’t until 1948, when Columbia Records came along with its long-playing albums pressed on a new plastic called polyvinyl chloride, that things began to change. Vinyl was much tougher than the shellac-based material used to make 78s, meaning they didn’t wear out after about 100 plays. More importantly, though, vinyl allowed grooves to be cut closer together (about .003 inches), greatly increasing the capacity of a side of a record. Instead of topping out at around four minutes, as was the case with the 78, an LP could store more than 20 minutes of music before anyone had to flip it over.
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RCA, Columbia’s sworn enemy, was very upset at these developments, given that it had developed similar technology back in the 1930s but had let the patents expire when they couldn’t make it work from a business perspective. Rather than license the new format from Columbia, RCA vowed to create a new competing format.
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After teasing news of the new format through late 1948 and early 1949 (RCA was looking to put a crimp in the marketing plans for Columbia’s album), the world was finally introduced to the 7-inch, 45 RPM single, which made its official debut on March 31, 1949. Like Columbia’s LP, the 45 featured microgrooves cut into polyvinyl chloride.
But that’s where the similarities ended. Not only did the 45 spin at a different speed, but also the hole in the centre was a gaping 1.5 inches. Both played into RCA’s plans of being the manufacturer of a new type of proprietary turntable which, the company hoped, would force people to make a choice between them and the new record players required by the new LPs. “Besides,” RCA said, “people are used to having records with just one song per side. And our new turntable allows you stack records on its ultra-tall spindle! Once a record finishes playing, the tonearm swings back, a new record falls into place and the listener continues to enjoy a continuous stream of music! Up to an hour’s worth!