EP vs Album
Before the arrival of the music cassettes, the world of music was dominated by EP’s and LP’s the acronyms that stood for Extended Play and Long Play respectively. An EP was a collection of songs just like an album. However, despite serving the same purpose, there are differences between an EP and an album that will be talked about in this article.
Extended Play is a kind of collection of music tracks that is more than a single but falls short of a full album in the sense that it contains lesser number of tracks. It was during the 80’s that the word and the practice of EP’s became popular. However, in present times, an EP is a collection of 3-4 songs sung by an artist taken from his most recent album that serve the purpose of a preview for the fans. It is also seen as a promotional gimmick though artists are seen sending their EP’s to critics to receive favorable reviews from them. Thus, a CD that contains only 4-5 songs is called an EP today while a CD containing a large number of songs from an artist or a band is called an LP. These days artists who have a desire to release an album but cannot afford the fees of a music studio for a long duration are going for EP’s that are recorded in a studio but take a very small time.
While EP’s are an older concept that originated in the times of record players, it survives even today in the form of a CD containing a small number of tracks. An EP is definitely larger than a single but is still not a full-fledged album that contains much more music than the EP. EP’s in the times of record players were considered opposites of LP records. Today they are CD’s containing much fewer music tracks than full albums of artists.
What is the difference between EP and Album?
• EP is a term originated during the 80’s and stand for extended play.
• It was a preview of sorts into an album of an artist and contained a few of the tracks from the album.
• EP was a promotional gimmick though artists sent these EP’s to critics for favorable reviews from them.
• Though original EP was a vinyl record, the concept survives even today in the form of compact Discs that contain a few of the songs or music tracks from the latest album of the artist.
• At times, EP’s serve as platforms for budding artists who cannot afford the full duration fees of music studios to release their albums.
• Albums are costlier than EP’s.