What's an Extended Play?

An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. Contemporary EPs generally contain four or five tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album.

Why is it called Extended Play?

Back in the 20th Century, the term EP stands for Extended Play Record. It referred to a type of vinyl record that was played at a different speed than the standard play records (SPs and LPs). The difference between EP and LP is that an LP is 'Long Playing' and generally has more than 8 tracks.

How long are extended plays?

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 10–35 minutes of music, a single has up to 10 minutes and an album has 35–80 minutes.