What does 45 RPM stand for in music?

Answer 1

45 revolutions per minute. This denotes the speed at which a turntable should be spinning in order to play a 45 record disc. when referring to records such as 45 RPM the RPM means:

R= Rotations

P= Per

M= Minute these refer to the speed at which the disc was recorded and will be turned while being played on a turntable

other speeds were also 78RPM (very old and very hard to find anymore) and 33 RPM which was the other common speed when records were the popular the 45's were about 8" in diameter and the 33's were about 11"or 12" in diameter. Hope this little bit of music history answers your question and fills your mind

The above answer is pretty much on the money....I'll add my two cents worth........

I believe that RPM stands for REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE. The old fashion record PLAYERS that played the "78's" were called phonographs and had only one speed- 78 RPM's. The more recent record PLAYERS usually had two speeds- 45 (RPM) and

33 1/3 (RPM). They could play the smaller vinyl records (or disks)- the "45's"- AND the larger vinyl records called "ALBUMS" or "LP's" (short for "long playing") at 33 1/3 RPM. The 45's had only one song on each side, while the LP's had multiple songs on each side. Now, everything is on a CD, but many times they still refer to them as "albums". REAL VINYL records and albums are not sold anymore, unless you go to a specialty record store that carries "antiques"!! <<<adr>>>