I think when trying to unravel mysteries, one frequent option to understand a tangled web better is to ‘follow the money.’

I listen to Daybreak on Saturday and Sunday mornings on CBC. It is an eclectic, low-budget show hosted by Paul Karchurt. A recent 13-minute segment discussed the business of streaming music, specifically the length of songs over time and how music streaming has forced songs to become shorter.

The critical money consideration is that artists don’t get any fractions of a penny in payment until a track is listened to for 30 seconds.

In the 1950s, songs were about 3 minutes. Along came the Beatles with Hey Jude. When John Lennon was told it was far too long, it wouldn’t get airplay on the radio. His response – It will if it’s performed by the Beatles! Case closed.

In the 1960s, songs were often well under 3 minutes. Along came albums with more space to fill. Twenty-five years ago, Top 40 songs were 4 minutes long.

Artists prefer to write songs of any length to express the mood of the content best. But one short 50-second song stayed on the billboard list for a record 19 weeks.

Why? I’m glad you asked.

The song was over so quickly that folks played it repeatedly. A guiding statistic was that the shorter the song, the greater the number of repeated plays.

Songs needed to have a short introduction. Hopefully, the chorus or hook might even start the song.

Here are some statistics from Spotify. If an unfamiliar song was being streamed, 24% hit the skip button in 5 seconds, 29% in 10 seconds, and 35% of the listeners never made it to 30 seconds. So, over one-third didn’t listen long enough for an artist to be paid.

Where the Streets Have No Name, by U2, the song is well over a minute of instrumental before Bono’s voice is heard. Artists can get away with that when they are famous, but lesser-known artists will likely get skipped well before the voice appears.

Circling back to the host of Daybreak, Paul Karchut, he lamented that his show didn’t have a musical theme opening. He chose a different track each week. It was getting very hard to find something contemporary that was instrumental at the start and allowed for his voice-over.

The guest attributed the short songs and quick hooks to our increasing short attention spans. TikTok videos are about 30 seconds long and exemplify how our brains are shaped.

This information has made me more aware of the influence, and I’ll be giving songs more than a 30-second consideration while I reshape my brain.

Please give this a bit of a think. What are some ways your thinking is influenced without you first realizing it? It may be deliberate advertising. It could be not what is said or shown but by what is missed out.

I am curious about your thoughts. Please comment below. It will come to me for approval before it is posted.

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glenn.walmsley@icloud.com