Whats the difference between a single, EP and album?

Whats the difference between a single, EP and album?

Single=1 or 2 songs
EP = 3 to 7 songs
Album = 1 to infinity songs

>Single
One or two tracks

>EP
3-7 tracks

>Album
8+

If the tracks lengths are the usual 3-5 minute fare.

Single = 1-3 songs
EP = 3-7 songs
Album = 8+ songs

A single is released as promotional material for an album. The difference between EP and album comes down to the artist's own definition and that of journalists covering the release. Everyone who says anything else is wrong.

Sleep's "Dopesmoker" is an album with only one song.

what about one track with 2 or 3 remixes of it?

>A single is released as promotional material for an album.

Except for all those bleep musicians who never make an album, ever.

their name

Single

Unless it's a bunch of different artists

Single has 1-2 songs.
EP has 3-5 songs.
An album is 30-50 minutes long (if it's not a double album).

Those rules aren't constant though. The system comes from the analog days with vinyl records. The records came in different sizes, the bigger the disc the more music you could fit. The LP, album, was the biggest, and the EP and single was the same size but the EP had more songs.

The EP is supposed to be for artists who don't feel like releasing a full album, but a single isn't enough. These days a lot of upcoming artists will release a few EP's before they have record deals. A famous EP would be The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, which in its original British format contained 6 songs - 20 minutes. EP's are often smaller releases, and rarely marketed at all.

The single was supposed to be a cheap way to get an artists radio hit. But it would often contain two songs because the radio hit would be ingrained on one side of the disc, which left the B-side empty. The record companies didn't care for the B-side, which allowed artists to throw anything on there.

The LP or album is obviously the full, often marketed, release. Because of the vinyl format these would historically only be 30-50 minutes long, with up to 25 minutes on each side of the disc. During the digital era this has changed though, an album can now be much longer. There was also double-LP's, which would contain double the amount of songs as a single-LP. These would cost more too. The first example of this happening is Bob Dylans Blonde on Blonde.

Those are just tracks, not singles or albums or EPs or anything.

this is something you could read about on wikipedia

Dopesmoker is a 20+ minute song faggot

I was speaking of how it traditionally works

If you're going by the vinyl analog it would be:

Single has one song and a B-side or two songs.
EP is up to 14 minutes.
Album up to 44 minutes.

oh right, MMT is a double EP. Sorry.

>up to
Reading, do you do it?

>The first example of this happening is Bob Dylans Blonde on Blonde.
This is also wrong.

But it is an album. What would you call it? A single?

By the way, the song is over an hour long.

Of course it's an album. It's an exception to the rule, however.

I didn't know Sup Forums was populated by literal retards

so is this a full album even though it's only 17 minutes long?

I was refering to the fact that Magical Mystery Tour is 20 minutes long, yet I called it an EP. A regular EP can't be that long, which made me realize that MMT is a double EP.
Yea, checked wikipedia and it wasn't. I guess it's something I've heard but never questioned. Turns out it was the first "rock double LP" though.

So it shouldn't be long. Cozy music shouldn't be a long album same with punk

This is really high quality shitposting. I love you op.

Then you've not been paying attention. Or are new

>single
One song released by an artist that may or may not be on their next project. Usually done to gain traction for the artist or to hold fans over until the next EP/album release.

>EP
A collection of tracks that usually are more to do with the artist's vision than a collective effort, either because they are trying something different or working their way up the ladder and still very much independent. For the former, they will have a few tracks that delve into a different musical style from what the artist is known for, and are short in length either through the amount of songs, the running time or both.

>Album
A collective effort by the artist and the people they work with to produce a cohesive effort, showcasing the talents of the organisation to the utmost. An album will have the longest recording time out of the three and will combine and contrast different ideas to grab the listener's attention and keep it for longer than an EP does, typically around the hour mark. Some even go as far as carving out concepts and running stories to make it that much more surreal.

this is the best single of all time

bump

A single is one song and maybe a few variants of that one song (or a b-side.)
An EP is a studio recording that is under 25 minutes.
An LP is a studio recording that is over 25 minutes.