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
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.
Hundred percent agree with you
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
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!