A vinyl record, or simply record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc. When made of polyvinyl chloride, such a disc is also known as a vinyl record.

Gramophone records were the primary medium used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century. They replaced the phonograph cylinder as the most popular recording medium in the 1900s. For the most part, they were supplanted in popularity in the late 1980s by digital media, leaving mainstream in 1991.

As recording technology evolved, more specific terms for various types of phonograph records were used in order to describe some aspect of the record: either its correct rotational speed ("16⅔ R.P.M.", "33⅓ R.P.M.", "45 R.P.M.", "78 R.P.M.") or the material used (particularly "vinyl" to refer to records made of polyvinyl chloride, or the earlier "shellac records" generally the main ingredient in 78s). Other terms such as "Long Play" or L.P. and "Extended Play" or E.P. were coined to describe multi-song records which were capable of playing for far longer than the single song per side records, which typically didn't go much past 4 minutes per side. An L.P. can play for about thirty minutes per side. The 7" 45rpm format normally contained one song per side but a 7" EP could achieve recording times of 10 to 15 minutes at the expense of attenuating and compressing the sound to reduce the width required by the groove. EP discs were generally used to make available songs not on singles including songs on LPs albums in a smaller, less expensive format for those who had only 45 rpm players. The large center hole on 7" 45rpm records allows for easier handling by jukebox mechanisms. The use of the term "album" no longer has any relation to the physical format (typically compact disc), but rather the length of the album and the number of songs.

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