The First LP, June 1948: Twenty-Three Minutes a Side

Before the LP, listening to a symphony meant getting up every four minutes to flip a disc. The long-playing record turned the music into something you could actually sit through, like swapping a stack of postcards for a letter.

• Columbia Records released the first LP in June 1948 ^[1].
• The 12-inch vinyl disc played at 33 1/3 rpm with about 23 minutes per side, roughly six times more than a 78 rpm shellac record ^[1].
• Peter Goldmark led the Columbia and CBS engineering team that perfected the microgroove in the summer of 1947 ^[1].
• The first LP, ML 4001, held Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, played by Nathan Milstein with the New York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter ^[1].

The record

The Library of Congress says Columbia Records released the first LP in June 1948. It was a 12-inch vinyl disc playing at 33⅓ rpm with approximately 23 minutes per side, roughly six times more than a conventional 78 rpm shellac record ^[1]. Its matrix number was ML 4001, and it held Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, with Nathan Milstein as soloist and the New York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter ^[1].

The engineering

Peter Goldmark led the team at Columbia, and its parent company CBS, that perfected the microgroove technology in the summer of 1947. The Library credits other engineers, including Bill Bachman, whose leadership advanced the project, and Bill Savory, Ike Rodman, Jim Hunter, Vin Liebler and Rene Snepvangers ^[1]. A microgroove is a much finer groove, so more of it fits on each side.

A material change

The LP used sturdy vinyl (Vinylite) instead of breakable shellac, which gave not only longer play but reduced surface noise ^[1]. The ideas were not all new. The same source notes microgroove attempts existed as early as the 1920s, including an unsuccessful effort by RCA Victor in the early 1930s, and that RCA later competed with its own 45 rpm format ^[1].

Who built it and what “album” meant

The Library of Congress names the people behind the breakthrough: Goldmark oversaw the project, Bill Bachman, an engineer and research director whose “brains and leadership” brought it to fruition, and others named by Sean Wilentz, Bill Savory, Ike Rodman, Jim Hunter, Vin Liebler and Rene Snepvangers ^[1]. Before the LP, the word “album” referred literally to a collection of discs in bound sleeves, because longer works needed multiple 78 rpm discs ^[1].

As LPs gained prominence the term shifted to the music on a single record, a new unit of consumption; a record could hold a dozen pop songs across two sides, and musicians began conceiving full LPs rather than singles, sometimes unified around a theme, which gave rise to the concept album ^[1]. Apart from the addition of stereo in the late 1950s, the LP has remained relatively unchanged, and a reader comment notes that the original ML 4001 is now rare ^[1].

Why it still matters

The LP gave music a new unit, the album, and a stable physical object to love. That is part of why vinyl is still growing: see RIAA’s mid-year 2026 numbers.

• Speed: 33⅓ rpm.
• Time: about 23 minutes per side.
• First title: ML 4001.

Questions readers ask

When was the first LP released?

Columbia Records released the first long-playing record in June 1948 ^[1].

How long did an LP side play?

About 23 minutes per side at 33 1/3 rpm, roughly six times a 78 rpm record ^[1].