Journal

Formats & Media

Why Flexi Discs Thrived in the Soviet Union

Flexi discs were dismissed across most of the world as cheap promotional novelties. In the Soviet Union, they became something else entirely — a bridge between music and daily life, a window onto forbidden sounds, and a publishing innovation that put records into the hands of millions who might never have owned one. This is the story of how the most fragile format in recorded music history became indispensable.