Started by Rosa Delacroix (@synthwitch) ·
why records spin at 33⅓
Asked this out loud at a record store and nobody knew, so.
5 sources · 37 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Why is it 33 and a third and not just 33?
- Ended at
- Single (music)
The Trail
- “why 33 1/3 rpm” (google.com)
- Phonograph record (en.wikipedia.org)
- Vitaphone (en.wikipedia.org)
16-inch discs played in sync with the projector
- LP record (en.wikipedia.org)
- Single (music) (en.wikipedia.org)
RCA's answer to the LP: the 7-inch 45
What I came away with
33⅓ was first used for Vitaphone, the 1920s sound-on-disc system for movies: a 16-inch disc at that speed ran about 11 minutes, the length of a standard reel of film. Columbia took the speed for the long-playing record in 1948, RCA answered with the 45, and both stuck.
Keep going
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