[Jukebox-list] RE: Seeburg's "promise"

[David Breneman]

--- Ron Rich <ronnnrich at yahoo.com> wrote:

>   As I understand it--Columbia was promoting three different size,
> 33 &1/3 rpm discs- seven, ten, and twelve inch. For some reason,
> RCA did not want the 7" 33rpm disc to become the "standard". They
> wanted to go with the 7" 45rpm format--thus the "speed war" between
> them-

RCA and Columbia were really working on two different
things.  Columbia was working on a replacement for the
album, and RCA was working on a replacement for the
single.  Columbia expected 78 singles to continue to
be produced alongside LP albums.  In fact. the first
LP albums were just 78 album sides re-recorded onto
a single disk.  RCA, on the other hand, wanted the
78 to go away and saw no market for a single-disk
album.  The 7" 33 single was the kludge of
the bunch, and was a direct reaction on Columbia's
part to the 45.  RCA's research showed that a 7" record
would have to rotate at not less than 40 RPM to have
the surface speed necessary for high fidelity 
reproduction in the inner grooves.  Columbia, for
their part, decided that if the 78 is going away,
they would market a "single speed does all" system.
The 7" 33 single format soon died and Columbia was
back to producing records in two speeds, only this
time 45 and 33 instead of 78 and 33.


David Breneman         david_breneman at yahoo.com

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