
Underground hardcore punk bands in the 1990s started releasing EPs on all sizes of vinyl including 5 inches in size.Due to space restrictions of the grooves, both songs were mixed as monaural. In 1980, the British band Squeeze released a 5-inch 33 1⁄ 3 RPM vinyl recording of "If I Didn't Love You", backed with "Another Nail In My Heart" (A&M Records AM-1616 / SP-4802).

Although dubbed a 5-inch record, to be usable in most compact disc players, the record can be no bigger than 120 mm or about 4.7". Techno artist Jeff Mills released the single for "The Occurrence" on a disc that is a gramophone record on one side, and a compact disc on the other. Disks in this format continue to be manufactured, particularly in association with Record Store Day during which 3" singles are made available exclusively through participating stores. They experienced a resurgence in the United States because of the interest of Jack White who released White Stripes singles in this format.

7-inch children's records were sold before World War II but nearly all were made of fragile shellac, not an ideal material for use by children.

In Europe, early 10-inch and 12-inch shellac records were produced in the first three decades of the twentieth century. By 1910, other sizes were retired and nearly all discs were either 10-inch or 12-inch, although both sizes were normally a bit smaller than their official diameter. Early American shellac records were all 7-inch until 1901, when 10-inch records were introduced. The most common diameter sizes for gramophone records are 12-inch, 10-inch, and 7-inch. An example of the 5-inch format resting on a 7-inch single for comparison
