Length of tracks for playlists

Business & Career
1

I’ve analyzed Spotify’s playlists for the type of music I make and came up to a conclusion that almost every song on their’s playlist’s has a duration between 1:30 -3:00.

It’s a problem for me since my tracks are longer. My guess is that I’ll never get on any playlists of theirs if I don’t shorten the tracks.
Does anybody know if it’s the same on Apple music, Pandora etc?

Feels like a decision to make.
Either don’t care to pitch music for Spotify’s playlists and release the music as it is or adapt to the unwritten rules and make edits for Spotify?

2

I remember in the old days when I was a DJ, there were all these singles of music (instead of albums). With 5-6 different versions/remixes of the song. There was always a Radio Edit, which almost always was almost exactly 3 min long. So there seems to be some “unwritten rule” about the most popular track length for commercial listening.

3

Yeah, and I think it’s quite crazy. Even on Spotify’s meditation/yoga etc playlists the tracks are about 2-3 minute long.
Maybe I should release 2 albums instead of one.
Album 1: The original tracks
Album 2 title - radio edit

4

For some genres it makes sense. Trailer tracks (epic music) is often around 2-2,5 min. Which trailer is longer than that?

But I must say, when I listen to relax music I want long tracks. Minimum 7-8 minutes. Because even with a playlist, every time a track changes that will have some form of interrupting experience…which takes away somewhat from the relaxing vibe.

5

It doesn’t really matter how long your track is for Spotify. Because it’s your track, you are the author and you wrote the brief! So don’t worry about this.

The only time you would have to worry about time is if you were going to a publisher. Going over 3:00 would definitely make you less appealing… plus a publisher would want a three section rising piece.

6

I don’t agree Geoffrey. I think it matters a lot if you want to have a chance to get into Spotify’s curated playlists.

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7

That’s fine if we don’t agree, I’ve never had an issue with track length on Spotify or any platform Stephan. So I can only go off what my experiences have been :slight_smile:

8

The question is not about the track length itself. I have a few very long tracks myself on Spotify. The question is more: Do we have a chance to get into a curated playlist with a 7 minute long track when all the tracks on a playlist curated by Spotify is 2-3 minute long?

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9

I understood the question. I haven’t had any on playlist quite that long, but I have had a few that were 4/5 minutes in length.

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10

So you have had music on their curated playlists, that’s cool and awesome.

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11

There is a great video on YouTube by a guy called David Holowitz. He explains how to do it… I’ve been doing it the way he shows for about a year.

Here is the link :slight_smile:

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12

Thank you! :slight_smile:
Yes, that’s the way I do it too but I think this time I’ll have 4 weeks until release to give the curator more time.

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13

That should be plenty of time.