Extended Play

An EP ( Extended Play for or even Extended player, the short form is common EP ) is a special form of the single. The EP stands between the single ( short play) and the album ( Long Play ). Most of them are vinyl records or CDs which contain too many pieces to be considered as a single, but do not form a complete album. Therefore, they are also often referred to as " mini-album ".

The term of an EP for differentiating between single, Maxi single or an album no meaning. In contrast to the EP a maxi-single contains fewer different pieces. Thus, the running time of a Maxi with different mixes ( one or more pieces ) reach the maturity of an album, or even exceed. An EP usually contains between four and nine (mostly) different pieces.

During the golden age of vinyl record in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was in EPs to records in a single format (17 cm or 7 "( inch) diameter ) or in 25 -cm or 10 " format ( between single and 30 - cm - LP), on the three and four - were listening to music - instead of the usual two singles.

Especially in the field of independent labels find EPs a large spread. Often, they also provide a kind of link between two albums by an artist dar.

Special shapes

As a split EP EPs are referred to the two different artists publish new titles or cover versions of songs the other band ( in rarer cases, three or four).