It’s no longer a secret: the big hits are getting shorter and shorter. Seeing an almost 10-minute knock at number one on the charts is next to impossible in 2021. Even songs with a playing time of over four minutes seem to have died out in pop music. The reason for this has now been revealed by a study by the technology group Samsung: The attention span for music has fallen extremely in recent years.
The average listener still gives a song a full eight seconds before a judgment about the top or the flop is made. In other words: after eight seconds, it will tilt. For the year 2030, the researchers predict an even shorter period of time. For comparison: In 2000, the average attention was still 12 seconds. So it has already fallen by a third!
In 2030, hits will only run for 2 minutes
So it can be assumed that songs will be even shorter in the future. Playing times of one minute should no longer be uncommon in ten years. The transition of the music industry into the streaming age is certainly one of the reasons for this. Spotify and Co. recognize a stream from the magical limit of 30 seconds. If the half minute is lasted, the artists get their money. The Swedish streaming giant is not interested in what happens after the 30 seconds.
This development also means that you actually only need 30 seconds to earn money. Everything else is superfluous from a business point of view and can be rationalized away. The equation is simple: Why should my song last eight minutes when eight or even up to sixteen individual songs can be played in the same time, which together bring me eight or even sixteen times the money?
Several songs also offer a higher probability of being hit. The possibility that a fan does not like an eight-minute song is significantly lower than that the fan will find at least one of eight songs good and listen to it for at least 30 seconds.
The structure of a song also changes
Another factor is the song structure. The shorter the attention, the faster and more violently something has to happen. Long intros with endless instrumental passages are a thing of the past. It usually starts right away, the chorus is right at the beginning of the piece.
But back to the bare numbers: A full 80% of the most streamed songs on Spotify do not exceed the four-minute mark. This is also noticeable in the charts: In England, number one songs in 1988 lasted an average of 4 minutes and 16 seconds. Today the hits at the top of the charts are just 3 minutes and 3 seconds. It is saved over a minute.
Is it all really that bad?
As a long-established music fan, the reflex to start talking angry about the digital age and Spotify & Co. has certainly already started at this point. However, caution should be exercised when making allegations that are too wild. Because: the length or brevity of music traditionally determines the medium through which it is published. When the record dominated the market, most albums were exactly as long as the medium would allow, or double LPs. When the CD took over in the 80s, it set a new standard for the length of an album with its 74 minutes playing time. If you’re wondering why pop songs usually last around three minutes: You owe that to the radio stations.
In the end, the question of the current standard in the music industry is historically always a question of the medium. Nothing changes in the quality of the music. If the vision of an artist is big enough, they will certainly not adhere to any industry guidelines anyway. And the musicians who stick to it have always done it that way. Until here it was only normal for you.
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