The resurrection of an obscure, niche vinyl format: The 3-inch record

Enlarge / This tiny turntable will be released, along with eight 3" singles from Epitaph Records and Third Man Records on April 13, 2019, aka Record Store Day. (credit: Chris Foresman)

History is littered with dead audio formats, from Elcaset to 8-track tapes, wire recording to "talking rubber." Yet so far, vinyl has consistently resisted going quietly into that good night. Today, unit sales are up 800 percent from 10 years ago, and companies continue to produce turntables of all shapes and sizes (they even steal CES headlines from the latest Internet-of-whatever device).

So while we may no longer want them in our automobiles, in-home record players appear to be thriving whether due to an appreciation of physical media, tactile rituals, or multi-sensory experiences. And on this wave of modern record appreciation, one of the most obscure vinyl formats is getting a second lease on life thanks to Record Store Day.

If you've heard of 3" vinyl singles at all, you have the enigmatic frontman of The White Stripes to thank for that. Jack White's label, Third Man Records, imported the tiny format from Japan nearly 15 years ago for a limited series of White Stripes singles. The original player-a cheap toy from Japanese maker Bandai-was abandoned almost as quickly as it launched. Outside of a few rabid White Stripes fans or Japan-o-philes willing to part with anywhere from a few hundred to as much 2,000 dollars on eBay, few people in the United States have even seen one, let alone listened to it.

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