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For those new to listening to records, learning about record sizes and their designations is important information.


Following Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877, cylindrical music recording devices began to be produced in the first half of the 1900s. However, the flat, circular recording material we know today as "vinyl" began to spread globally in the 1920s. Since then, let's categorize the three different types of common vinyl records we've encountered based on their size, rotation speed, and intended use:


Shellac - 10" - 78 rpm

In Türkiye, the 10" (approximately 25 cm in diameter) vinyl record, commonly known as "Taş Plak" is usually made from a brittle material called ebonite. This type of record, which achieves the correct sound when played at 78 rpm (78 spins per minute), is suitable for use on non-electric record players called gramophones. It features a musical track on each side. Although some modern turntables can play 78-rpm records, they must be played with a suitable needle if playing vinyl records.


45'lik (Single - 7" - 45 rpm)

It is called this in Turkish because it is a record that must rotate at 45 spins per minute. This type of record, measuring 7" (approximately 17.5 cm in diameter), is a single, containing a single track on each side, like a vinyl record. Rock 'n' roll and pop music were particularly popular in the early 1960s. Artists would release a few 45s, and after they became popular, they would record them on LPs as an album and present them to their listeners. While reprinting such records is not often preferred today due to cost, singles are a preferred format for artists over albums for commercial reasons on digital music platforms.


LP (Long Play - 12" - 33 rpm)

This term, short for Long Play, is translated into Turkish as "uzun çalar". This name is usually applied to 12" records, approximately 30 cm in diameter. It represents the vinyl version of the album format, which was popular from the 1960s until the late 2000s. These records are also called 33'lük in Turkish. This is because, like other record formats, they produce the correct sound when rotated at 33 rpm. LPs allow approximately 22-26 minutes of music to be recorded on each side. While the composition of the material has changed slightly since its introduction in the 1950s, its primary ingredient is a plastic polymer known as Vinyl. 45 rpm records are also produced from this same raw material. The popularity of newly pressed vinyl records today in 180-gram weights stems from the fact that this weight is more resistant to sunlight and heat than the 120-140 gram weights used in the 1970s and 1980s.


You'll frequently encounter these dimensions in product titles when shopping at Çıtırtılı Sesler.