phonograph record

(also audio disc, phonograph album, recording), n. A disk or cylinder with a spiral grove in which sound vibrations have been fixed using an analog signal.

Notes

'Phonograph record' connotes a disk format, although the term include cylinder recordings. Disks were made in a variety of sizes. Larger records, 10 to 12 inches in diameter with playing times of more than five minutes at 33⅓ revolutions per minute are often called albums or long-playing records (often abbreviated LPs). Many early disks were metal plates coated with lacquer; later disks were made of vinyl. Common recording speeds included 16, 33⅓, 45, and 78 revolutions per minute.

Citations

U.S. Code, 17 USC 101 LawMaterial objects in which sounds, other than those accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work, are fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the sounds can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term 'phonorecords' includes the material object in which the sounds are first fixed.