A split album (or split) is a music

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

that includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There are also singles and

EPs EPS, EPs or Eps may refer to: Commerce and finance * Earnings per share * Electronic Payment Services, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, China * Express Payment System, in the Philippines Education * Edmonton Public Schools, in Edmonton, Al ...

of the same variety, which are often called "split singles" and "split EPs" respectively. Split albums differ from " various artists" compilation albums in that they generally include several tracks of each artist, or few artists with one or two tracks each, instead of multiple artists with only one or two tracks each.

History

Split albums were initially done on vinyl records, with music from one artist on one side of the record and music from a second artist on the opposite side. As vinyl albums declined as a mass medium, CD issues have followed the practice. Although a CD is not turned over the same way as a vinyl, the term "sides" is still applied figuratively. Since the early 1980s, the format has been used widely by

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

s, and artists in punk rock, hardcore, grindcore,

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw ( lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

and

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of