Victor 45 RPM Record

Records as we knew them where mad of a shellac-based mixture which tended to have a lot of background noise in their play back. The introduction of vinyl allowed more audio information to be held on a smaller disc. 

Released in 1949 to the public, the 45's held only five minutes of music per side, but the company also sold phonographs with a built-in mechanism. This allowed a stack of 45s to be played consecutively with only a minimal delay between discs.