What is an EP?!
Question: They started as sort of a "middle ground" between 45RPM singles (which were seen as for young teenagers) and the "serious" hi-fi music aficionado who could afford to buy full length LP ("long play") albums.
EP stood for "extended play", implying more than the 2 songs you get on a single but not as many as the (typically) 10 on an album. They usually had 4-5 tracks. There were 45RPM EP's that contained 2 tracks per side also. (The Beach Boys had a popular series of these released for jukebox use.)
They remain more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S.
Answers: They started as sort of a "middle ground" between 45RPM singles (which were seen as for young teenagers) and the "serious" hi-fi music aficionado who could afford to buy full length LP ("long play") albums.
EP stood for "extended play", implying more than the 2 songs you get on a single but not as many as the (typically) 10 on an album. They usually had 4-5 tracks. There were 45RPM EP's that contained 2 tracks per side also. (The Beach Boys had a popular series of these released for jukebox use.)
They remain more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S.
Vinyl records or CDs which contain more music than a single, but are too short to qualify as albums.
"Extended Play"
EP's (Extended Play) are singles (or the CDS of today) with more than just the normal the title track and "B side".
extra play.
A 12inch vinyl single
Extended play (EP) is the name typically given to vinyl records or CDs which contain more music than a single, but are too short to qualify as albums. Usually, an EP has around 10–25 minutes of music, a single has up to 10 minutes and an album has 25–80 minutes.
EPs were released in various sizes in different eras. In the 1950s and 1960s, EPs were typically 45 RPM recordings on 7" (18cm) disks, with two songs on each side.