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Song lengths undergoing change—Radio impact?

The fact is that the artists are in charge. They decide song length. The labels have no "A&R" where they oversee the music. If an artist wants a 2 minute song, that's how long it is. If TikTok creators want shorter songs, they make the edits. Artists are making music to attract fans to their concerts, not to drive social media. If you want to look at an era where the songs were short, go to the 60s. Lots of 2 minute songs. No social media.
 
TheBigA said:
The fact is that the artists are in charge. They decide song length. The labels have no "A&R" where they oversee the music. If an artist wants a 2 minute song, that's how long it is. If TikTok creators want shorter songs, they make the edits. Artists are making music to attract fans to their concerts, not to drive social media. If you want to look at an era where the songs were short, go to the 60s. Lots of 2 minute songs. No social media.
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Aah! But if the shorter songs become more popular, then you could cram more of them into shorter sets for airplay between commercial breaks!
 
Two songs that I want to be the longest version possible are "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck and "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring.

I have heard "Hey Jude" get cut off before that part that makes it so long.
 
TheBigA said:
The fact is that the artists are in charge. They decide song length. The labels have no "A&R" where they oversee the music. If an artist wants a 2 minute song, that's how long it is. If TikTok creators want shorter songs, they make the edits. Artists are making music to attract fans to their concerts, not to drive social media. If you want to look at an era where the songs were short, go to the 60s. Lots of 2 minute songs. No social media.
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When I operated Top 40 stations in the mid to late 60's, we found we could play about 20 songs an hour, including 10 minutes of commercials, jingles and DJ talk.

Any format adapts to the length of its current songs, not the other way around. When songs got longer in the 70's, we'd just adjust the way sweeps were built and change the positions of the powers to insure they got played. Otherwise, it made no difference.
 
TheBigA said:
There was an official single edit of Nights that ran 3:06.

Today, it's less likely that a label will provide an edited version of a song for radio.
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It must be a felony in Seattle to play anything less than the full length album version of "Nights In White Satin" on the radio. On any AOR/Classic Rock/AC/Oldies station here that has ever played "Nights", every single one has played the full length album version. No exceptions.
 
TheBigA said:
The fact is that the artists are in charge. They decide song length. The labels have no "A&R" where they oversee the music. If an artist wants a 2 minute song, that's how long it is. If TikTok creators want shorter songs, they make the edits. Artists are making music to attract fans to their concerts, not to drive social media. If you want to look at an era where the songs were short, go to the 60s. Lots of 2 minute songs. No social media.
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Wasn’t most of the length dictated by the recording medium. A 45 record was 2:30 max? LPs and CDs allowed for longer songs.
 
TheBigA said:
There was an official single edit of Nights that ran 3:06.
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A friend actually has a copy of that single version. The interesting thing is that it doesn't actually run 3:06 but actually runs almost 4 1/2 minutes. Versus the album cut, the intro is chopped down and the entire "Late Lament" is omitted.

The story that I've heard is that the running time marked on the single was intentionally erroneous in an attempt to get radio to play the song -- the idea being that a running time of 3:06 was more likely to get played than one of over four minutes.

And listening to the song, I'm really not sure where you'd cut it to get it down to 3:06.
 
Bongwater said:
It must be a felony in Seattle to play anything less than the full length album version of "Nights In White Satin" on the radio. On any AOR/Classic Rock/AC/Oldies station here that has ever played "Nights", every single one has played the full length album version. No exceptions.
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It's nice to know that at least that hasn't changed in the market. In the late seventies, even the top 40 stations played the full album cut all the way through to the gong.

I've got an old radio recording from 1979 of KNBQ-FM (now KIRO-FM) in Tacoma segueing from the gong at the end of that song into a then current disco song from Chic. As much as the population of the area has grown since then, I'm guessing that most people living in the Puget Sound area today are from somewhere else -- but for those who grew up in the market, it is the album cut that is the familiar version.
 
Don CT said:
Wasn’t most of the length dictated by the recording medium. A 45 record was 2:30 max? LPs and CDs allowed for longer songs.
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No. The first single over 5 minutes long to reach the Billboard hot 100 was Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park," in June of 1968 (its length was 7:30) followed that October by The Beatles' "Hey Jude," which clocks in at just over 8 minutes. In fact, after those two songs hit it big, the standard length of a 45 single slowly went up to around 4 minutes by 1978.

The major downside to these lengthy singles was a technical one. The longer a song became on a 45 single, the higher you had to turn the volume knob on your turntable or stereo system to hear it. This was the direct result of having to place a lot of information onto such a limited space.
 
TexasTom said:
A friend actually has a copy of that single version. The interesting thing is that it doesn't actually run 3:06 but actually runs almost 4 1/2 minutes.
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There were actually two single edits. One was 3:06 and abrupt. The second was 4:26. Most of the commercially available singles were 4:26.
 
ted chittenden said:
The major downside to these lengthy singles was a technical one. The longer a song became on a 45 single, the higher you had to turn the volume knob on your turntable or stereo system to hear it. This was the direct result of having to place a lot of information onto such a limited space.
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The quality of the vinyl improved with time, and that allowed more time on a single with no degradation.
 
TheBigA said:
The quality of the vinyl improved with time, and that allowed more time on a single with no degradation.
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Yet, still in the 60's and 70's many pressing plants for smaller labels were using recycled vinyl from returns and excess inventory which was mixed with some virgin vinyl to make 45s.
 


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