The vinyl record, also known as microgroove or simply record or vinyl, is a support for analog memorization of sound signals born in 1948 in the United States of America as an evolution of the previous 78 rpm record.
Today the term vinyl is often used to refer especially to LPs (30 cm records that spin at 33⅓ revolutions per minute).
Like its ancestor, vinyl is a circular plate which has a spiral groove on both sides (engraved starting from the outer edge) in which the sound recording is encoded in an analogical way.
Until the seventies, vinyl was the most widespread medium for the audio reproduction of pre-recorded material, but its preeminence was undermined by magnetic tapes in the eighties and at the beginning of the nineties vinyl definitively gave way to the compact discs (audio CDs).
The large-scale production of vinyl records practically ceased in the early nineties, however from the second half of the 2000s vinyl came back into fashion as a niche product in Italy too and there are many artists who also print their works on vinyl.
Vinyl fascinates two different types of target: the older ones who remember it fondly and perhaps still own a vintage record player, and on the contrary the younger ones who like to have a physical copy of the record in hand and admire its cover.
The 7’’ 45 RPM vinyl was a type of disc used to distribute singles or EP. It has recently made a comeback among enthusiasts.
The 33 RPM vinyl is the standard vinyl disc format used to record studio albums.
