The Shortification of Songs: Lessons from a Music Industry Cut Short

Is This Just Fantasy? 

“Bohemian Rhapsody” hit the airwaves in late 1975 and soon became a No. 1 hit. Just shy of six minutes, Queen had to fight for its release as a single, as executives doubted people would want to listen to all 5 minutes and 55 seconds of its glory. Because they took the risk with this operatic masterpiece—enlisting the help of a local DJ to get it to play on the radio—Queen’s legacy was cemented as a group who pushed musical boundaries and were not willing to settle for what others expected of hit songs. 

Queen wasn’t the first to push against standard song length. For example, “Hey Jude” from The Beatles ran for 7 minutes and 11 seconds, far longer than was standard at the time. In truth,  the average song length hasn’t stayed consistent over the past century. Song lengths have varied due to technological and cultural innovations.  

Short songs were the norm for the first half of the 20th century. For example, 78rpm records limited how much content could be included. The normalization of verse-chorus form and the advent of the CD gave songwriters more time to flesh out the lyrical story leading up to the 21st century. By the 1990s, songs averaged over four minutes. The 2020s? Try closer to three minutes, with some hits in the two-minute range.  

Fifteen Seconds of Fame 

What could be behind this “shortification” trend? Is the attention span of the younger generations to blame? While this thinking might make for sensational headlines, reminiscent of the stones thrown at Millennials a decade ago, there are a lot of influences to break down to understand why songs are getting shorter.  

After CDs came the digital age. Think Napster, iTunes, YouTube, and all the way up to Spotify and TikTok. Music is easier than ever to find and play. It makes sense that there is such a variety of songs in genre, length, and production.  

Technology may have a large part in the current decrease in song length—not by increasing how much media technology can hold, but by changing revenue models, such as how Spotify’s royalties work. Whether it is a main cause is up for debate, but new technology definitely creates a perfect environment to value shorter songs.  

Having an incredible hook makes a song memorable and perfect fodder to be picked up by short-form video creators and turned into the latest trend. For example, Lil Yachty’s “Poland” was 1 minute 23 seconds  long, hit the Billboard 100, and became a popular TikTok sound in the weeks after its release in 2022.  This approach can get a song noticed by more people. 

TikTok trends take short snippets of music and trend them, growing a song’s reach beyond when people had to listen to an entire song to discover music. I’ve certainly discovered new songs and new artists through TikTok. Artists themselves have even been discovered and landed record deals from successful TikTok channels, such as Lil Nas X and Doechii. One downside is that hooks may be seen as more valuable than the full song that gives the hook its significance; says producer Bart Schoudel, as quoted in Billboard, “To a lot of people, I think the snippet [they encounter on TikTok] is the song.”  

This suggests people may not want, or at least aren’t fighting for, a full story in song so much as catchy earworms in bite-sized pieces.

From Spotify to Short-ify 

Spotify requires a song to be played for at least 30 seconds before an artist gets royalties. If 30 seconds is what nets you a payment, a practical view is getting the most people to listen to 30 seconds of your songs. In this hypothesis, songs need a hook to draw in listeners, paired with a shorter length to move them on to another song faster. The more a song streams, the more it earns.  

Viral Hallyu 

Back in 2020, Korean pop (K-pop) sensation BLACKPINK released their first full album, four years after they debuted. With eight songs, it clocks in at only 24 minutes. While fans were excited to finally have an album, the multi-genre-infused pop concoction was a brisk ride that ended just as it was beginning. Not to mix metaphors, but it was sort of like “driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street, faster than the wind… ending so suddenly.” 

Named The Album as a nod to patient fans who kept asking BLACKPINK’s company YG “Where is the album?,” conversation abounded as to its short run-time. Surely if it took four years to get an album, then YG could’ve made at minimum a half hour of content. So why was it disappointingly short? My theory (along with other disgruntled fans’) is that it was perfectly manufactured for streaming. 

Explosive but with no time for resolution, The Album barely scratches the itch instead of providing a well-rounded musical meal. It’s quick to stream start to finish, with earworms that don’t leave your head. This led me to listen to the album on repeat, over and over and over. Stream counts were up, The Album was a commercial success, and BLACKPINK held on to their K-pop throne a little while longer. 

And it’s not just BLACKPINK who is releasing shorter hits. NewJeans’ bop “Super Shy” lasted only 2 minutes 34 seconds, while the eponymous single “New Jeans” was only 1 minute 48 seconds. Combined with iconic and somewhat easy to replicate choreography—think of the incessant headbanging in BLACKPINK’s 2025 release “Jump”—the visuals and audio of K-pop hits make them prime fodder for TikTok trends. Songs may be cutting out bridges and dance breaks, but with good enough hooks, consumers are placated. 

Outliers 

This is not to forget those who may not fit into this shortification mold. Billie Eilish’s highly streamed “Birds of a Feather” is 3 minutes 30 seconds, and “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars is 4 minutes 11 seconds. Both were in the top-streamed songs of 2024, and both are longer than the average.  

Let’s not forget Taylor Swift’s masterpiece, “All Too Well”, whose 5 minutes 27 seconds (original version) led fans to clamor for the full version, released with Red’s recording in 2021, at a whopping 10 minutes 13 seconds and racked up streams. This goes to show that following a trend or plotting out art economically is not always the wisest answer. While these things should be taken into consideration, the focus should be on quality and staying true to your brand to release the best. Some songs work well short and some long. If artists worry too much about racing toward a quick ending, they might miss the buildup that makes a song worth it.   

Don’t Shortchange the Pet Industry 

This same concept applies in the pet industry. Trends are important to be aware of, but instead of chasing what others are doing, it’s important to be true to your brand and make products of quality. Technical and cultural advancements move the industry forward, but it is up to companies to steer their brands in the direction that most benefits their consumers’ needs. Becoming something you are not rarely ends well. Don’t chase trends that don’t fit, and don’t give up long-term longevity for a fast-fading fad.  

Like the infamous Henry Ford’s quote about people not knowing if they wanted a car rather than a faster horse, people may not know exactly what they are looking for in music until they find it—they just know they are searching for something great. Sometimes it’s not enough to follow trends. You have to set them. 

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About the Author

Kait Wright is a Senior Analyst at BSM Partners in the Branding, Strategy, and Marketing practice. She has over five years of experience in consumer insights and market research and has worked in both the human and pet food industries. She has volunteered with a local TNR program, domesticating and fostering feral kittens. She earned her B.S. from Brigham Young University and lives in Utah with her two cats.