Background.

Until June 1948, home listening to recorded music required a forgiving ear and a vivid imagination. The records were all ten or twelve inches in diameter and made of shellac. They cost about $1.50 each and played for about four minutes per side at 78 revolutions per minute. They broke easily, scratched at the slightest touch, and wore quickly with repeated play. The sound quality of the recording was terrible by today's standard, and, as a result, more energy went into improving recordplayer cabinets than in enhancing the quality of their sound reproduction. Even so, Americans bought about 350 million records in 1947 and owned 16 million record players, all of which ran at a single speed, because only 78-RPM records were available.

More Music Per Disc.

New technology reformed the industry. There were two major record manufacturers, RCA-Victor and Columbia, vying with one another for dominance. Columbia took...