Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The major labels moved from one channel to two within a single year. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

The stereo LP arrived in shops in 1958

The major labels moved from one channel to two within a single year Audio Fidelity issued the first stereo disc in 1957, and RCA, Columbia and the other majors followed in 1958 with stereo albums and a standard cartridge. Early stereo recordings often put a whole band in one speaker and the singer in the other. Mono copies kept selling alongside them for years. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Library of Congress

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Alan Blumlein patented stereo recording in 1931His patent covered coincident microphone pairs and the mid-side technique Early Beatles stereo mixes were made without the bandThe group sat in on the mono mixes and left the stereo versions to engineers Stereo was patented in 1931Alan Blumlein described two channel recording years before anyone sold it Quadraphonic sound collapsed after a format warFour-channel records arrived with three incompatible ways of decoding them Philips launched the compact cassette in 1963The tiny tape format was designed for dictation rather than for music RCA's seven-inch single spun at 45 rpmThe 1949 format had a wide centre hole so automatic changers could grip it

Tags: stereo, records, formats

The stereo LP arrived in shops in 1958: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The major labels moved from one channel to two within a single year. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.