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Why aren't all modern vinyl releases 45s?

I have purchased a handful of brand-new records released post CDs, and all of them are 33s, except for Baroness' Blue album, which is two LPs of 45s. The audio quality is far superior to the 33s, and there is plenty of room left on the other records (usually 2x LP) to fit the groove density required of the higher rpm. All of this makes me wonder if these bands want to go through the effort of releasing vinyl in the digital age, why not maximize quality?

Thoughts?

ricksgiving

Showing 2 responses by lewm

lewm
12,537 posts
 

Reference Recordings are not comparable to any average 45. First, they’re not reissues; they are derived directly from live performances, but I agree they’re marvelous.

lewm
12,537 posts
 

My guess is the people who sell records have figured out that there is not a big enough market for 45 rpm LPs, and that may be because the majority of us end users do not want to get up to flip LPs even more often than usual and have found that 45s are not so reliably superior to 33s as you seem to think.  Also, the producers need to charge much more for 45s, because in general it takes two discs to encode the info found on one 33, which is another reason they may not sell as well, certain pressings always excepted.

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