Former music biz lawyer here. When it comes to music, albums have been getting longer because there are more songs on there than before, as you say. But if you look at the average song length, the general trend is still that songs have decreased in length since the dawn of Spotify. Regardless of what Ted may be suggesting with that Billboard article.
Why? Because of the economics of streaming - as an artist you only get paid for a stream if the listener plays at least 30 seconds of your track. So more tracks = more opportunities for payouts. There is a commercial incentive to keep tracks short but albums track-heavy.
Totally agree with this. I think this is true of certain types of Substack articles too, like the length is what it is to be quote mined, to be an object rather than be closely read
wow loved how this encapsulated how people really do consume content so absent -mindedly! I know someone who watches long - form content 20 mins + whilst either playing a game or scrolling on tiktok which I really think shows the trend you were describing. we really need to focus more on consuming mindfully rather than long-form.
Former music biz lawyer here. When it comes to music, albums have been getting longer because there are more songs on there than before, as you say. But if you look at the average song length, the general trend is still that songs have decreased in length since the dawn of Spotify. Regardless of what Ted may be suggesting with that Billboard article.
Why? Because of the economics of streaming - as an artist you only get paid for a stream if the listener plays at least 30 seconds of your track. So more tracks = more opportunities for payouts. There is a commercial incentive to keep tracks short but albums track-heavy.
ahhhhh very interesting!
Tiktokification of music
Totally agree with this. I think this is true of certain types of Substack articles too, like the length is what it is to be quote mined, to be an object rather than be closely read
Hundred percent agree with you
wow loved how this encapsulated how people really do consume content so absent -mindedly! I know someone who watches long - form content 20 mins + whilst either playing a game or scrolling on tiktok which I really think shows the trend you were describing. we really need to focus more on consuming mindfully rather than long-form.
*netflix documentary has left the chatroom*
I wish movies were shorter
I do exactly this. I put on Nancy meyer films everyday for background ambiance. Basically it’s my new soundtrack that makes me feel homey and safe.