A split album (or split) is a music album that includes tracks by two or more separate artists.
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 followed the practice of combining music from two artists.
Since the early 1980s, the format has been used widely by independent record labels, and artists in punk rock, hardcore, grindcore, black metal, noise and indie rock circles.
[1] Splits usually receive an underground fanbase even if the artists featured are mainstream, as the success of split albums is most often not of a mainstream proportion.