You may have heard her reasoning. In some circles, people agreed with her. Others bellowed about all the songs over say – five minutes – that never would have been produced.
TikTok’er Pink Pantheress said this past May that songs should be no more than 2:30 in length.
No second verse – no bridge – no long outro.
It IS true hit songs are getting shorter. A full sixty seconds shorter in the past two and a half decades.
Artists all over the digital space are intentionally shortening songs in an attempt to get more streams. Another trend has musical pros encouraging emerging artists to eliminate musical intros to open songs.
Radio edits of hits have been around for decades. But what’s the correct length?
It’s subjective and up to you!
As Captain of Your Format, you have complete control over what version of a song you air. Legendary talent Steve Goddard showed us this very thing decades ago in Phoenix.
When Dirty Dancing arrived in the theatres, the soundtrack was white-hot. You couldn’t punch between Pop and Adult Contemporary stations without hearing Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes belt out (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.
One problem. In order to push forward momentum in a high-energy format meant no stoppage of music.
When you said ‘Continuous Music’ – you paid it off every music sweep.
And THAT song – had no instrumental intro.
Cold open.
What did Steve do then? Steve CREATED a musical instrumental intro. All:12 seconds of it.
The music doesn’t stop. Period.
Mr. Goddard lifted a piece of the bridge – looped it – boom!
Instant intro.
A second school of thought in ‘building a music matrix’ that fits your brand attitude – songs that fade OUT on the radio sound as though the radio STATION is fading out of ‘range’.
When A Flock of Seagulls I Ran is delivered to the radio, the edit supplied by Arista Records fades out, while the album version (and video edit) ends cold. Quick edit on the 4-track machine – boom! Instant cold ending.
With digital machines, making your own edit—a unique edit that exists only on your brand—is easy at middle school grade level.
You don’t like the COLD intro on Maroon 5’s – Cold? Your music provider offers instrumental, A Capella, and no-rap versions. Go wild!
You can most likely figure it out on your own, but there are dozens of tutorials on the Internet. The ART of scoring a radio brand – like you would a movie score – is a lost art. Automation has trained broadcasters who have never mixed their own show to ‘let it run’.
More on that – at another time.
At 6:00 full minutes, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody – too long? The record company said – yes. Fans said – no.
What is the right length of a song? Does every song need an intro?
Pink Pantheress has her answer.
You – have YOUR correct answer.
Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
