Most modern music is four minutes long. Thoughts on why?

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Most modern music is four minutes long. Thoughts on why?
Posted on: 09.10.2013 by Ninfa Mazariegos
Just did the math on my collection's song per minute ratio and found that the average was 4.05 minutes per track. I then looked up the average and found it to be almost 4 minutes exactly per song according to this web post.

http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/viewre...47&groupid=948

In the comments section, I read that four minutes was about the length of your average 78rpm records, and that format availability may have had a contributing factor in the average length of today's songs versus what is most enjoyable. As a dj, I generally try to play a song for two to three minutes before transitioning to let the production do the talking, but keep the short attention span of the floor.

Thoughts?
Rolanda Clodfelder
10.10.2013
Originally Posted by funke
Just did the math on my collection's song per minute ratio and found that the average was 4.05 minutes per track. I then looked up the average and found it to be almost 4 minutes exactly per song according to this web post.

http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/viewre...47&groupid=948

In the comments section, I read that four minutes was about the length of your average 78rpm records, and that format availability may have had a contributing factor in the average length of today's songs versus what is most enjoyable. As a dj, I generally try to play a song for two to three minutes before transitioning to let the production do the talking, but keep the short attention span of the floor.

Thoughts?
Sounds about right for chart music, 4 mins is Average for radio play these days, if I remember right radio edits used to be 3.30 mins up until a few years ago. Radio is a fickle beast and holding onto a person for more than 3 mins with a mediocre song might be the difference of a few thousand listeners who changed to another station midway though the song.

Personally most of the tracks I have at this point average around the 7-8 minute mark though.
Ninfa Mazariegos
09.10.2013		Just did the math on my collection's song per minute ratio and found that the average was 4.05 minutes per track. I then looked up the average and found it to be almost 4 minutes exactly per song according to this web post.

http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/viewre...47&groupid=948

In the comments section, I read that four minutes was about the length of your average 78rpm records, and that format availability may have had a contributing factor in the average length of today's songs versus what is most enjoyable. As a dj, I generally try to play a song for two to three minutes before transitioning to let the production do the talking, but keep the short attention span of the floor.

Thoughts?
Domenica Zischke
11.10.2013		I believe 4 minutes are just more pleasant to listen to, especially by todays chart music...
If you look at non-chart songs, most songs except for rock/ band music, are longer.... e.g. tech-house, ambient, underground hip-hop, even trip-hop (with 6-8 minutes length)...

And there were different times...

http://cdn.meme.li/i/oll8l.jpg

And never forget sometimes even 4 minutes can be to much... *cough* #justinbieber#mileycirus*cough*
Ninfa Mazariegos
10.10.2013		Woops that was the wrong link. This was the article I was referring to.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/081211length
Sonja Roybal
10.10.2013		Drum and bass tunes used to be around 6-7 minutes. Now, they're 4-5. Tunes used to have 64 bar intros with breakdowns after and 64-128 bar outros. Now, they usually have 32-48 bar intros and straight drops. I believe it's for 2 reasons, software has made it easier to beatmatch and there's more emphasis on double drops. Mixes ride through the "meat" of the tune now.
Rolanda Clodfelder
10.10.2013
Originally Posted by funke
Just did the math on my collection's song per minute ratio and found that the average was 4.05 minutes per track. I then looked up the average and found it to be almost 4 minutes exactly per song according to this web post.

http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/viewre...47&groupid=948

In the comments section, I read that four minutes was about the length of your average 78rpm records, and that format availability may have had a contributing factor in the average length of today's songs versus what is most enjoyable. As a dj, I generally try to play a song for two to three minutes before transitioning to let the production do the talking, but keep the short attention span of the floor.

Thoughts?
Sounds about right for chart music, 4 mins is Average for radio play these days, if I remember right radio edits used to be 3.30 mins up until a few years ago. Radio is a fickle beast and holding onto a person for more than 3 mins with a mediocre song might be the difference of a few thousand listeners who changed to another station midway though the song.

Personally most of the tracks I have at this point average around the 7-8 minute mark though.

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