The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet or soundsheet) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable. Flexible records were commercially introduced as the Eva-tone Soundsheet in 1960, but were previously available in the Soviet Union as "roentgenizdat", "bones" or "ribs", underground samizdat recordings on x-ray film.
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Before the advent of the compact disc, flexi discs were sometimes used as a means to include sound with printed material such as magazines and music instruction books.[1] A flexi disc could be molded with speech or music and bound into the text with a perforated seam, at very little cost and without any requirement for a hard binding.[2] One problem with using the thinner vinyl was that the stylus's weight, combined with the flexi disc's low mass, would sometimes cause the disc to stop spinning on the turntable and become held in place by the stylus.[1] For this reason, most flexi discs had a spot on the face of the disc for a coin, or other small, flat, weighted object to increase the friction with the turntable surface and enforce consistent rotation. If the turntable's surface is not completely flat, it is recommended that the flexi disc be placed on top of a full sized record.[3]
The Soviet-era "bones" [кости], "ribs" [рёбра] or "roentgenizdat" [рентгениздат] are so-called because one cheap, reliable source of suitable raw material is discarded medical x-rays, which have the added benefit of including ready-made and interesting images. The name roentgenizdat comes from the combination of roentgen ray (another word for X-ray) and izdat (Russian: издат, abbr. издательство, izdatel’stvo, “publishing house”), patterned after the word samizdat ("self-published", or underground literature). X-ray records emerged at the time of the Stilyagi as an underground medium for distribution of jazz music, which was prohibited in the Soviet Union after World War II. This format was also particularly attractive to politically suppressed punk rock music and the "do it yourself" punk ethic, since other publishing outlets were much less accessible.[3][4]
Every year between 1963 and 1969, The Beatles made a special Christmas recording which was made into a flexi disc and sent to members of their fan club. While the earlier discs largely contained straightforward 'thank you' messages to their fans, the later Christmas flexis were used as an outlet for the Beatles to explore more experimental areas; the 1967 disc, for example, became a pastiche of a BBC Radio show and even included a specially recorded song entitled Christmas Time (Is Here Again).
A two sided flexible sheet record of the underwater sounds produced by humpback whales was included with the January 1979 issue of National Geographic magazine. With a production order of 10,500,000 copies, it became the largest single press run of any record at the time.
While flexi-discs were usually just used as occasional giveaways, from 1980 to 1982, Flexipop Magazine made a speciality of giving away such a disc with each edition. Compact discs and the internet have rendered flexi discs largely obsolete but gimmick discs are still produced occasionally: Amelia’s Magazine included a one-sided Libertines flexi of What Katie Did[5][6]
The American manufacturer Eva-tone, believed to be one of the last manufacturers of flexi discs, based in Florida, stopped production of the product in August 2000.[2]
As of December 2010, Pirates Press, an independent record manufacturing company based in San Francisco, CA, has already begun production on flexi discs of various sizes and color.
In November 2010 extreme metal magazine Decibel began releasing flexi discs with each issue, starting with the January 2011 issue. The content on the disc features "100 percent exclusive songs" from artists that have been previously featured in the publication.[7][8]
In October 2011, the Los Angelos based record company, Side One Dummy Records, teamed up with AP Magazine to offer a Title Fight flexi disc (containing 2 previously unreleased B-Sides) along with a year of AP subscription as a limited edition offer. Due to manufacturing delays the discs arrived packaged with the November issue of AP magazine in mid December.[9]
"Flexi Disc" is also the title of a spoken-word track recorded by British electronic band The Human League in 1978. Included as a bonus track on the re-release of their album Reproduction, the song is a discussion between the band members concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the flexi disc format.[1][10]