Ongoing History: No, it’s not your imagination. Songs ARE getting shorter.

September 25, 2024 Alan Cross 0 Comments

There is a reason why songs tend to be around three minutes long. When the 78 RPM record was introduced about 125 years ago, it could only hold three minutes of music per side. Therefore, if artists wanted to sell recorded music, they had to conform their songs to the capacity of the record.

Songs started to get longer after 1965 when albums overtook singles as the most popular format. Average song length peaked somewhere between 1990 and 1995 as cassettes and especially CDs, which allowed artists to sell longer songs.

But with streaming, the trend has reversed. Songs ARE getting shorter. Right now, the average length of a hit song is back down to about three minutes. We haven’t seen an average that low since about 1970.

Check out some nifty graphs here.

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.

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