Much has been made about the renewed interest in vinyl records these past few years, but today marks the format's 70th birthday.
The long-playing vinyl record was first introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, with a performance of Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor performed by violinist Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra pressed to wax.
Reuters reports that to mark the occasion, HMV and Sony Classical repressed 500 copies of the aforementioned release to give away to fans. One copy was also donated to the British Library's archive, which currently houses 250,000 LPs.
"The fact that the long-playing record came into existence was a huge step for music sound recording and for the listener," British Library popular music curator Andy Linehan told the news agency.
"Previously you could only get three minutes or so onto one side of a record and now because you had a narrower groove and a slower speed, you could get up to 20 minutes, which meant you could get a whole classical piece on one side of a record … you could get a whole package of songs together on one record."
Much has been made about the future of LP, with some promising improvements in manufacturing that could lead to a "high definition" product. Until then, we'll keep on spinnin'.
The long-playing vinyl record was first introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, with a performance of Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor performed by violinist Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra pressed to wax.
Reuters reports that to mark the occasion, HMV and Sony Classical repressed 500 copies of the aforementioned release to give away to fans. One copy was also donated to the British Library's archive, which currently houses 250,000 LPs.
"The fact that the long-playing record came into existence was a huge step for music sound recording and for the listener," British Library popular music curator Andy Linehan told the news agency.
"Previously you could only get three minutes or so onto one side of a record and now because you had a narrower groove and a slower speed, you could get up to 20 minutes, which meant you could get a whole classical piece on one side of a record … you could get a whole package of songs together on one record."
Much has been made about the future of LP, with some promising improvements in manufacturing that could lead to a "high definition" product. Until then, we'll keep on spinnin'.