EP vs. LP: What’s the difference? Does it matter in 2024?
Music formats are a tricky business in the 2020s. Musicians used to be limited by the media they used. Vinyl, cassette tapes, and CDs all had their constraints, which shaped the way that music was released. In the digital era, few limits exist. A music release could be five seconds long or last an entire day. How can we decide which format to release in?
The terminology has also gotten confused. Words like “EP” and “LP” come from old media, and their modern definitions are vague. So what is an EP exactly, and what is an LP? In this article, we’ll define these terms, explain the pros and cons of EPs vs LPs, and give examples of artists using both formats to their advantage. While it may not settle the EP vs. LP vs. album debate once and for all, this article should give you the confidence to release your music in the format that’s right for you.
Jump to these sections:
What is an EP?
An EP is a music release that contains more tracks than a single (which typically has 1–2 tracks) and fewer than an album. Most EPs tend to feature around 3–6 tracks, with a runtime of 10–30 minutes. Besides these loose constraints, EPs can take many forms. Where a single might present an artist’s most crowd-pleasing track, and an album offers a deep musical statement, an EP can be almost anything you want it to be.
EP stands for “extended play,” a name that comes from the vinyl era. For much of the 20th Century, the length of music releases was dictated by the medium they were released on. When vinyl records were king, the EP plugged the gap between the 7” single (which could only contain two fairly short tracks) and the longer LP or album. EPs tended to be overshadowed by LPs, but legendary work was released in the EP format, like The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, a double EP featuring the soundtrack to their TV movie with the same name.
Over time, cassettes, CDs, and digital downloads joined the party. The practical constraints of EPs and LPs became less important — though many music fans still enjoy vinyl — but the EP remains popular. More weighty than a single but easier to put together than an album, EPs are a handy stepping stone in a musician’s catalog.
Modern artists release EPs to build an audience at the start of their career, keep listeners interested between albums, and gather up loose tracks that don’t fit onto their longer releases. EPs are particularly popular in certain genres, such as dance music. Dance acts like Disclosure release some of their best work as EPs.
Why is an EP not an album?
An EP is shorter and contains fewer tracks than most albums. In the EP vs LP debate, an EP is defined by what it isn’t: it has too many tracks to be a single, and too few to be an album/LP. Any release that sits in this intermediate zone might be considered an EP.
What is an LP?
An LP, short for “long play,” is a 12” vinyl record that can contain an album’s-worth of music: around 20 minutes per side. When vinyl was the dominant music format, albums were released as LPs. In fact, the constraints of the LP format defined the album as we know it. It’s no coincidence that the typical album length (around 40 minutes) corresponds to the length of an LP. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors — considered by many as one of the best LPs of all time — is almost exactly 39 minutes long.
As formats progressed, musicians were no longer limited by what an LP could hold. A CD, for example, can contain about 74 minutes of music, and digital albums can be virtually any length. Although, 40 minutes has remained a loose standard length for albums. That’s why some people still use the terms interchangeably, referring to albums as LPs even if they are released on formats other than vinyl.
What is an album?
An album is a longer music release that typically contains multiple tracks. Albums are closely associated with the vinyl LP format, and many people use the terms “album” and “LP” interchangeably. However, albums can also be released on CD and digitally — via streaming or download.
Albums are likely to be longer than 30 minutes and contain a minimum of six average-length tracks, but these are not fixed rules. The stoner metal album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains just one 72 minute-long track, while the Beach Boys’ 1967 album Wild Honey contains 11 tracks but is only 24 minutes long. Though they bend the “rules,” both are clearly albums.
What makes an album an album? The album was the dominant music format from the 1960s until the early 21st Century, a period referred to as the “album era.” Releasing an album is a milestone in an artist’s career. Most musicians try to put out an album every year or so, with singles and EPs in between.
You could say that an album is an album when it feels important. A shorter multi-track release might be called an EP or mini-album, while a long but less significant release might be called a mixtape. For many musicians and fans, albums are still the main event.
The pros and cons of EPs vs. LPs
So should you release an EP or an LP? Both formats have their pros and cons, and their status has shifted in the streaming era. The album (or LP) remains an important format, but EPs are more important than ever. To understand why, let’s look at some stats.
Streaming has changed the way we listen to music. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 32% of listeners now use streaming platforms like Spotify, and 31% listen to music on video platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Only 9% purchase music in traditional formats. Streaming encourages listeners to ignore the format of a release and cherry pick songs from across releases, or let algorithmic playlists steer their listening.
This makes the EP a useful format. EPs can have more impact than singles: by gathering multiple tracks together, an EP offers more songs for a fan to potentially fall in love with. But listeners don’t expect the “cohesiveness” from an EP that they do from an album, meaning it’s okay if your EP is a motley assortment of tracks, each with a different quality that might catch the ears of listeners and playlisters.
Many modern artists use the EP format to their advantage. For example, Get Up by NewJeans helped catapult the K-pop group into global stardom – though the EP is only 12 minutes long.
Albums, in contrast to EPs, are expected to be deep, cohesive musical statements. This means they take more time and care to create. According to the IFPI study, most streaming listeners search for specific songs, artists, or playlists, while only a minority listen to specific albums. Given this, is it worth laboring over an album that many listeners won’t hear in its original form?
Time is also an important factor. In the crowded media landscape of the 2020s, it’s harder than ever to hold listeners’ attention. If you spend a year quietly working on an LP, your fans might forget you exist. Releasing two or three EPs in the same period could keep them more engaged.
In many cases, it makes more sense to release an EP versus an LP. This is especially true if you’re early in your career and trying to build an audience. EPs are an easier and more effective way of doing this.
These factors might help explain the decline of the album format. According to Statista, album sales in the United States dropped from 501 million units in 2007 – the dawn of streaming – to 102 million units in 2020, while overall music consumption rose over that time. We’re listening to more music than ever, just not in the album format.
Is the album dead? Not quite. There are still strong benefits to this iconic format. The qualities that make albums challenging to create are exactly what make them so special. The best albums are profound listening experiences that can stay with us for a lifetime.
Your most dedicated fans will care deeply about your albums. Even in the streaming era, making a great album can be the ticket to wider recognition and cultural impact. Don’t give up on the idea of making an album – when the time is right.
Start releasing your music
In this article we waded into the EP vs. LP vs. album debate. We defined these often confusing terms, explained their origins, and explored the relevance of these music formats in the modern music landscape. Now that you have a grasp on the most common music formats, it’s time to start using this knowledge to release your own music.
Komplete Start is a great tool for creating your own EPs and LPs. This free music production software package gives you everything you need to make music, from powerful synths to samples and audio effects.
The post EP vs. LP: What’s the difference? Does it matter in 2024? first appeared on Native Instruments Blog.
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Live 12.1 adds Auto Shift, Drum Sampler, and more – now in public beta
The 12.1 update brings significant additions and improvements to all Editions of Live, including Live Lite.
Auto Shift – real-time pitch tracking and correction device
Live 12.1 now puts real-time pitch correction within reach for anyone working with vocals. Select a scale, or define your own, to keep every note in tune with your track. Play and make harmonies from any monophonic signal using Auto Shift’s MIDI sidechain. Add vibrato, and modulate your sound using MPE or the device’s LFO.
Drum Sampler – compact one-shot sampler with built-in effects
Beatmaking becomes more fluid with this small but mighty device. The new Drum Sampler presents all essential sampling controls for immediate manipulation – and pairs them with time stretch and looping modes, FM and ring modulation, and the ability to layer a sub oscillator or noise, add punch, or crush sounds with an 8-Bit mode.
Auto-tagging for all your samples
You can now search your entire user library faster with filters – and there’s no need to tag the samples yourself. Live 12.1 automatically assigns new tags to any sample in your library less than a minute long. VST3 and AU plugins will also be assigned tags based on metadata.
Improved Limiter and Saturator
Limiter gets a complete overhaul – with a smoother release curve making for less distortion, better metering with the improved UI, and the addition of Mid/Side routing, True Peak, Soft Clip, and Maximize modes.
Along with a more focused front panel, Saturator sees the addition of a Bass Shaper curve ideal for low end processing. Drive 808 kicks and sub basses as hard as you like and let Saturator keep the frequencies in check.
MIDI improvements
You can now filter and select MIDI notes by time, pitch, velocity, chance, duration or by a number of other dimensions using a new toolbar in the MIDI Editor. 12.1 also introduces two new MPE-specific MIDI Transformations – Glissando and LFO – allowing you to create curves for the MPE parameters of selected notes.
Create more intuitively on Push
Live 12.1 comes with a host of updates to Push. With Push 2 and 3 you can now design sounds with more detail and control by mapping Macros, and experiment with a range of different sounds using Macro Variations. Push 3 now also lets you add groove instantly to all the MIDI clips in your Set with a single twist of an encoder.
The new update brings Live 12’s filtering system to the browser on Push 2 and 3, as well as auto-tagging for samples on Push 3 standalone. Plus, you can now save Default Sets and Template Sets on Push 2 and 3, and organize your Sets by moving tracks and scenes.
For more detail on Live 12.1, including updates to Push, check out the release notes.
If you’re a Live 12 user, you can join the beta program to try the free update now.
What is voice leading? How to create smooth, harmonic progressions
3. Minimize note shifting to create smooth movement
When creating satisfying and effective voice leading, a central principle to follow is that all voices should be well-written individual melodic lines. We know that great melodies usually don’t include large interval leaps, so we should apply the same idea to voice leading.
Generally, it is safe to leave any common chord tones between chords in the same voices. Where we can’t keep tones the same, stepwise motion is always preferable to leaps. “Stepwise motion” refers to moving a tone or semitone away, rather than a big interval jump (like a sixth). The only voice where big leaps are permitted is in the bass (voice 4).
Remember that chords don’t have to be written in ascending vertical order. As long as a C, E, and G are the notes that are present in the chord, it is a C major. Writing the chord as G, then C, and E, still leaves us with a C major chord.
Let’s move through our chord progression and keep all common chord tones where possible, using stepwise motion in the other notes.
Celebrating World Music Day: discover unique instruments across the globe
Music transcends cultural barriers, geographic locations, and spoken languages. In honor of World Music Day on June 21, we’re sharing a musical journey that takes you from the island of Cuba all the way to China and West Africa by way of diverse, iconic instruments that you can use in your own productions.
And during Summer of Sound, you can get all of these instruments sampled within the Spotlight Collection from Native Instruments at a discount.
Explore the Spotlight Collection
What is World Music Day?
World Music Day, also known as Fête de la Musique, is an annual celebration held on June 21. Originating in France in 1982, it has since spread globally, encouraging musicians of all levels to perform in public spaces. The day promotes the joy of music and aims to make music accessible to everyone, fostering cultural exchange and community spirit.
Let’s take a listening journey through some of these beautiful instruments from different cultures across the world.
East Asia: Guqin
The Guqin is a traditional Chinese string instrument, known for its delicate, expressive sound and cultural significance. With over 3,000 years of history, it features seven strings and is typically played by plucking with the fingers. The Guqin is highly regarded for its association with scholars and its role in Chinese art, literature, and philosophy.
Working with sample packs: how to create dynamic tracks
What are samples in music?
Samples are sounds that can be used to make music. They’re called “samples” because the way digital audio recording works is by taking a sample of the level of the input signal at regular intervals (known at the sample rate), and this is used to make a file that recreates the sound. Hence, “sample” has become shorthand for a digital audio recordings in the music production realm.
Samples can come in various forms, and are often “loops” (usually rhythmic material of a specific number of bars that can be played repeated to create a backing), and “one-shots” (a single sound that can be played back rhythmically and chromatically, i.e. pitched up and down a keyboard).
What is a sample pack?
A sample pack is a collection of sounds, often designed to work well together to create a specific style of music. Native Instruments Expansions are sample packs that also include instrument presets, and now expansions are available in “WAV-only” editions that just feature the sample content.
Guitar Rig effects unlocked: discover delay, tape wobble, and distortion
Tape Wobble
Tape Wobble emulates the sound of analog tape machines, characterized by wow and flutter, saturation, noise, and a limited high-frequency response. You can use it to apply classic lo-fi effects, particularly when playing sustained notes, pads and melodies.
Dedicated controls for Wow, Flutter, as well as the Speed and Age of the tape enable you to adjust the effect in great detail. The Scrape control expands the sound palette by degrading the sound and adding a crunchy quality.
Discover the best Maschine tutorials for beat making, performance, and more in 2024
What is Maschine best for?
Maschine is a versatile beat making tool with both an extensive included sound library, and an enormous amount of extra sounds available via Native Instruments expansions. It’s also capable of sampling on-the-fly, allowing you to record internal or external audio signals without having to stop the sequencer.
This makes it great for spontaneous music making, and its fun-to-play pad-based hardware interface means its the ideal tool for those after a more tactile approach to beatmaking and live performance
Can a Maschine be used standalone?
There is a model of Maschine that can be used standalone: the Maschine+. This version has its own built-in processor, RAM and storage, meaning that it can be used without a computer at all. All other Maschine devices including the Maschine MK3 and Maschine Mikro require a computer to be used.
For more info on the Maschine range, check out the Maschine product page.
How to make a pro-sounding beat with Play Series instruments
There are many different ways to arrange a beat. Most beats have an intro, a couple of main sections, and an outro. There might also be a breakdown in the middle, where some of the main elements are removed to create suspense. Beats with a vocal might be arranged into “verse” and “chorus” sections.
For now, we’ve arranged our beat into two sections: a more stripped-back intro, followed by a “main” section that showcases all of our parts together.
To do this, we first duplicated our 4 bar loop a few times to create two sections of 8 bars each. Then, in the first of the two sections, we muted some key elements to create an introduction.
At first, only the chords and a couple of the drum layers can be heard. Halfway through the introduction, the bass line enters along with the hi-hat. In the second eight bars, the kick drum and melody enter to complete the beat. Gradually bringing in elements like this gives our beat variation and a sense of narrative.
What is a glue compressor plugin? How to use it to create a cohesive mix
How to use a glue compressor
Every mix requires different glue compression settings, but you can use the following settings as a starting point:
- Attack: 10 ms
- Release: 0.1 s
- Ratio: 4:1
- Threshold: 0 dB
To dial-in settings that fit your mix, start by dropping the threshold level so that you see 3-4 dB of gain reduction being applied on your gain reduction meter. If you want the bus to sound less “pokey” and “snappy,” reduce the attack time. Attack times longer than 15-20 ms won’t usually provide the glue you want, but feel free to experiment.
A fast release time will lead to a clear, transparent sound at the risk of top-end distortion. If you hear unwanted distortion or want to make the compression more noticeable and musical, boost the release time.
At this point, you should readjust the threshold level to fine-tune the amount of compression applied. A ratio of 4:1 might be too intense for certain buses, but it’s often a good choice for your drum bus and more aggressive stereo buses. Drop the ratio to 2:1 if finding an appropriate threshold level at 4:1 proves challenging.
Learn how to DJ: Explore these 6 beginner tips to get started
Phrasing refers to the technique of aligning the musical structure of two tracks so that their beats and phrases (typically 4, 8, or 16 bars) coincide, ensuring a smooth transition between songs. This helps maintain the flow and energy of the music, creating a seamless listening experience for the audience.
It’s important for new DJs to learn to use the phrasing of the tracks in their collection to smoothly mix tracks together.
For example, every eight or sixteen bars of four could be good spots for a transition to the next track. A DJ transition is the technique used to change from one song to the next in a set.
Basic DJ techniques include fading tracks in, cutting to the next track in the mix, and utilizing the EQ and/or effects to sculpt the transition. The simplest type of transition is called the fade, where one song fades in as the other fades out.
Here’s a beginner’s quick-guide to fades:
- Start by loading in a track in Traktor in Deck A, and analyzing the track’s structure to find a part in the track that you can use to transition into the next song.
- Play the next track in Deck B, beginning on beat one of a bar so that the second track comes in as the first track in Deck A fades down.
You can use Traktor cue points to put markers on your tracks at key places in each song, and use these cue points to remind you to transition. To learn more about how to transition, and phrase mixing, you may want to take a few DJ lessons with a local or online teacher.Learn more about five types of track transitions in our guide.