Are pop songs getting shorter?

tyler's half right. spotify counts a stream once you hit 30 seconds, and it pays the same whether the song is 2 min or 6. so shorter songs mean more streams per hour of listening. labels figured that out fast. average hot 100 length has dropped something like 30-40 seconds since the late 90s / early 2000s depending whose numbers you use

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well that explains a lot... I always wondered why the songs on the radio at the office seemed to end right when I was getting into them!! I do miss the long fade-outs though... we used to sit through a whole minute of intro and nobody complained. Now they just jump straight to the chorus... I guess paying by the stream will do that. Just my two cents!!

yeah the streaming thing is real. a play only counts after 30 seconds, so labels want the hook in before anyone can skip. i timed a few songs in my car last month like a weirdo and most were under 3 minutes. my mom saw me holding a stopwatch at a red light and asked if i was ok, which, fair

i'll defend the long fade-out to the death though. it's the only part of a song where you get to decide when it's over. i used to turn the volume down myself with the knob and pretend i was the one ending it