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Be Honest: How Long Do You Listen to a Song Before You Hit “Skip?”

Back in the days before the CD, the only way to skip a song on an album was to get up, walk across the room and move the needle to the next track on the record. If you were listening to a cassette or 8-tracks, you had to fast-forward until you found the song you wanted.

But when CD players appeared, they came with a button that instantly skipped to the next track. No more fast-forwarding, no more enduring a song you didn’t want to hear. And thus shrunk our attention spans and our tolerance for things we didn’t like immediately.

So how long will we let a song go before we give it a thumbs down?  Writing in Music 3.0, Bobby Owsinski tells us:

24.14% skip within the first 5 seconds
28.97% skip within the first 10 seconds
35.05% skip within the first 30 seconds
48.6% skip before the song finishes!

And there’s more.  Continue reading.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39376 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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