{
  "schemaVersion": "v1",
  "slug": "what-are-eps-lps-and-singles-and-how-do-they-effect-creativity",
  "title": "What are EPs, LPs and singles? And how do they effect creativity?",
  "kind": "solo",
  "listenUrl": "https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lovemusicmore/episodes/What-are-EPs--LPs-and-singles--And-how-do-they-effect-creativity-e1lm3tr",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-14",
  "source": {
    "provider": "whisper",
    "model": "faster-whisper:base",
    "normalizedSchema": "v1",
    "transcribedAt": "2026-06-09T11:30:13.883Z"
  },
  "paragraphs": [
    {
      "startSec": 0.18,
      "endSec": 47.82,
      "text": "Music Appreciation. What's up, everybody?Scoobert Doobert here.I want to talk about the mediuminforming the content.So there are creative limitationsin everything that we do.And I'm going to argue that some of those creative limitationsare fundamentally a very, very good thing.Because they open up new doorsby closing a window.So I just did my first live music set.And it was at Folk Arts Rare Records in San Diego."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 47.82,
      "endSec": 72.82,
      "text": "Really, really cool venue.But it was interesting because there are creative limitationsby performing in a record store, particularly solo.And one of the cardinal rules of live musicis don't point your microphone at your speaker.Because when you point your microphone at your speaker,it creates feedback.It's that terrible soundthat blows out everybody's ears."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 72.82,
      "endSec": 95.82,
      "text": "At this particular venue, they didn't have any speaker stands.They just kind of put them up on a table behind the stage.And so it was basically a recipe for feedback.But at the same time, it ended up creating a vibe for the show.Because I had to point the speakers in weird waysand try and orient the microphone.So it didn't blow everybody's head off.It was like a constant feeling of tension."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 95.82,
      "endSec": 127.82,
      "text": "Just from the medium itself.It was like because I was playing in that venue in that way,it was like operating right on the razor's edge of feeding back.But it never quite did.So it had this interesting sound.I'm re-watching the tape right now.It was kind of cool.It was super DIY.And it gave this edge of like, yeah,this is exactly what a first show is supposed to sound like.And that was kind of cool for me."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 127.82,
      "endSec": 147.82,
      "text": "I think it still sounded pretty good.It was definitely like the really a lot of things that I would preferlike being able to hear my voice as I was singing.Because the feedback was making it really impossible.There were no monitors or anything.So it was super hard.I had to wear headphones.But even that, it couldn't really hear.So anyway, I had to press.But it's interesting that like the medium of that performance,"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 147.82,
      "endSec": 163.82,
      "text": "you're not being able to hear yourself having the feedback all of that.And I ended up creating a different vibe and a different performance than I ever would have done.And I thought that was kind of cool too.You know, my voice is kind of raspy today.But like, that's part of the vibe of playing live.You don't exactly know what you're going to get."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 163.82,
      "endSec": 184.82,
      "text": "And the room in which you inhabit ends up informing so much about the sound that you create.You know, like as I'm doing in my bedroom, making music,it's like a fairly stable, familiar, sterile-ish environment.And so that's able to turn into a decent home recording studio.But then you throw me into like a place like a record store where there are people"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 184.82,
      "endSec": 205.82,
      "text": "literally walking around shopping for records as they're listening to my music.And people bumping into speakers and all this kind of stuff.It ends up creating a certain sense of chaos in the music.And I'm kind of into that.But I want to talk about, you know, taking that same kind of concept,the concept of the medium of the concert experience,the room in which you inhabit and the way that that room"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 206.82,
      "endSec": 226.82,
      "text": "affects the music that you create, which is very, very real.And it's part of the reason why, you know,church music sounds like church music,because it's supposed to be played in a church.It's supposed to have all of these big rooms and reverberation.And so you make these long, like,kind of sounds because you want them to echoand go all the way to the back of the church where, you know,"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 226.82,
      "endSec": 247.82,
      "text": "the people that are in the congregation are listening way in the back.So you need to have these like long,and languid, flowy things that can echo around you.And then, like, on the opposite side, you know,music of the 70s, like, or prog rock or something like that,you know, where it's like supposed to be super tight,almost like there is no room.It's like entirely digital.That creates a different kind of music,"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 247.82,
      "endSec": 282.82,
      "text": "because now you can have all sorts of notesbecause it's not balancing everywhere.And so that idea of medium shaping the thingcan also be applied to format.And that's what I want to talk about more extensively today.The LP, the EP, the single, the playlist, the mixtape.We have a bunch of different words for a bunch of different formats.And we are currently living in a, quote unquote,format list world."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 282.82,
      "endSec": 314.82,
      "text": "But there are great creative limitations that come fromcomposing to a EP, or an LP.So first of all, what are these even me?They're coming back from vinyl record days.So there were like various sizes, different eras,pulling from Wikipedia here.But like, okay, so first, multi track records come out in 1919.These are 78 RPM discs.So it's like, it's basically what you're trying to do"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 314.82,
      "endSec": 343.82,
      "text": "for a record is you're trying to fit more grooves onto itso that you can add more songs.So these are physically etched grooves.So as technology advances,you're able to fit more and more songs onto a record.So you know, it starts off.It's like, it's a single, just one song.Play your best song.Maybe we'll throw a B side on the opposite side.So that's where like kind of single era comes from."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 343.82,
      "endSec": 371.82,
      "text": "It starts getting LPs and EPs.So EP extended play.They are like 45s, so these smaller records,that are able to now get more onto it.So we're talking, you know, seven and a half minutes per side.It gets a little bit longer.But then like, you know, you add it up both sides.And you go, okay, that's about half of what we consider to be a full length album.And so that's what the EP's kind of evolve into."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 371.82,
      "endSec": 396.82,
      "text": "EPs are like these half albums.They're a good way for a band to like cut their teeth.Or if like a recording contract doesn't want to go all in on somebody to say,you know, let's record 456 songs,make an EP, see how that does.And if that does really well, let's make the LP.And the LP will be the thing.They'll, you know, have up to like 15 to 20 songs on it potentially.You know, usually around 10."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 396.82,
      "endSec": 421.82,
      "text": "But just for simple math, let's just say that an EP's got five.The EP's got 10.Single has got one.Maybe two if you include the B side.Obviously, we don't have to do that anymore.I mean, even CDs opened us up quite a bit.Now you can have with like 25 songs or something like that.It depends on the length of the song, of course.But then you get like these CD data.I don't know if you guys remember this."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 421.82,
      "endSec": 442.82,
      "text": "Or you could like, I think you can hold, you know, 100 MP3s or something on to this CD data.But you need a special drive to be able to read it.But some cars started to get that and artists started to play around.Now you have these like massively long things.And then of course, we go to streaming where the playlist becomes the dominant distribution model."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 442.82,
      "endSec": 478.2,
      "text": "But how do we use these like old ways of making music to create creative parametersto make music in the modern day, even if it's never going to be pressed on to vinyl?I would argue that there's a beauty to the sides of a vinyl.If you listen to like Sergeant Pepper's, there's a way that, you know,listening to the thing on Spotify, listening to the music on Spotify,you can hear where the album's side ends."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 478.2,
      "endSec": 498.2,
      "text": "It is naturally like, I'm going to tell you a story to the point in which side A endsand now it's time to flip over the record.And I'm going to tell you a story to the point in which side B ends.I think we can apply this in music.We're instead of thinking of, you know, this long playlist of songs.It's just all bunch of singles or it's all one story, you know,"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 498.2,
      "endSec": 520.2,
      "text": "sitting at multiple arcs in the same way that like you have three act plays.You know, you can do that with records.And that's what I'm trying to do with KŌAN is a four act play.KŌAN A, KŌAN B, KŌAN C, KŌAN D.And the whole thing turns into a double record.But that's what I'm using, you know, the vocabulary and the limitations of the pastin order to create something in the future."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 520.2,
      "endSec": 547.2,
      "text": "So I, quick aside, I used to do like comedy improv when I was in high school.It's called ComedySportz. It was very fun.But basically it's like, Whose Line Is It Anyway?Or like second city kind of stuff.And the funniest thing that I learned by doing that was that thethe suggestion from the audience, which always seems kind of like,oh, why are you like having me suggest something?"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 547.2,
      "endSec": 567.2,
      "text": "Aren't you just going to do whatever skit you want to do?The suggestion actually becomes the thing that limits the infinite expanseof funny things you can do into something that's like way more tangible.So say like, oh, give me an example of something you find in your house and go toaster.Now you have to do a sketch about a toaster.But like that alone now takes away the infinite possibilities"
    },
    {
      "startSec": 567.2,
      "endSec": 597.2,
      "text": "and turns it into one possibility.And then you can jump off from there any which way,but at least you have a jumping off point.And that's my point with EPs, LPs, Singles.Having the physical medium inform a jumping off point.And you know, even a mixtape, where like there's a history to making that.So when you're making that, you have history to back, back you up.You have something to think about."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 597.2,
      "endSec": 622.2,
      "text": "But the next obvious question is like, do you just want to repeat history?Of course not.So how do you use that constraint to jump off into the future?And that's what I want to finish this pot about.But what I want to do next year.And I'm thinking about this as a meta cycle.Something that's going to be bigger than an individual album,individual side, an individual single, individual collaboration."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 622.2,
      "endSec": 651.2,
      "text": "Something that is going to have an entire arc in mind of an entire yearwith multiple LPs and EPs and Singles and collaborations,all of which are arcing towards a specific end point.Two extremes at once.And the same way that I was trying to do that with KŌAN,like writing about two things, happy and sad at the same time.I am trying now to take the vocabulary of EPs, LPs, single.Hold on to it."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 651.2,
      "endSec": 677.2,
      "text": "But then also look at the ability to put things in playlistsand shuffle orders and reimagine and remix.A lot of the things that are newer-ish conceptsnewer within the last 35 years or something.I wonder when the first remix was.That's a good question.Maybe I'll look into that for another history pod.But anyway, trying to take the playlist, the digital format,the limitless format."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 677.2,
      "endSec": 704.2,
      "text": "You know, tens of thousands of songs on to a single playlist and shuffle it.How do you take that and sus it with the LP EP single world?And I would argue it's through a meta cycle.Stringing together lots of smaller releases.And the same way that the LP comes out of stringing together lots of singles.And then it takes on a life of its own.This is something that I'm hoping that I can contribute to."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 704.2,
      "endSec": 729.2,
      "text": "They can take on a life of its own.Where it goes from an album to an EP to an EP to an EP to maybe another album to an EP to a final album.That you don't get the full story of the record until you listen to that whole arc.And it might even span multiple years.But it's that idea of innovating within a common vocabulary.And that's what I'm excited about for next year."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 729.2,
      "endSec": 763.06,
      "text": "So this year was me trying to get into the, you know, ABCD side of albums.And then next year is hopefully turning that on its head a little bit.And seeing what a meta cycle can look like with lots and lots of music.All centered around a certain je ne sais quoi certain theme, a certain vibe that contrasts with itself.But fulfills each of the other points when you hear it all.If you liked what you heard or didn't."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 763.06,
      "endSec": 792.13,
      "text": "You can find my links at scoobertdoobert.pizza.We'd love to hear from you.If you have any ideas on stuff that you'd like me to cover or our guests to cover.Just let me know.We'll be having fun every single week.Have a good one, guys.That was not accident, but I'm going to leave it in."
    }
  ],
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}