
Ask HN: Is the avg.song length(≈3min)related to the recording capacity of vinyl? - weitzj
Nowadays I would guess an average popular song length is about 3 minutes long.<p>The question is:<p>- Is this somehow related due to the fact that the first vinyl&#x2F;grammophone records had a limited capacity?<p>- Or is this somehow differently related, e.g. a singer&#x27;s voice degrades if one sings longer than 3 minutes,or the attention span for a listener is degrading?
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greenyoda
As far as I know, 3 minutes is the standard time slot for radio play, and a
song that's longer than that will be more difficult for DJs to schedule and
thus will get less air time. Thus, musicians try to fit their songs into that
time slot to maximize royalty revenues.

This doesn't seem to come from any physical constraints of old media, since a
7-inch 45 RPM record (the standard "single") had a recording capacity of about
5 minutes per side.[1]

Billy Joel, in his song "The Entertainer" (1974), has the following lines: [2]

    
    
        I am the entertainer
        I come to do my show
        You've heard my latest record
        It's been on the radio
        Ah, it took me years to write it
        They were the best years of my life
        It was a beautiful song
        But it ran too long
        If you're gonna have a hit
        You gotta make it fit
        So they cut it down to 3:05
    

Wikipedia says that this "references the shortening of Joel's song, 'Piano
Man', from 5 minutes and 38 seconds to 3 minutes and 5 seconds to fit a radio
slot".[3]

[1] [http://history-of-rock.com/record_formats.htm](http://history-of-
rock.com/record_formats.htm)

[2] [http://www.metrolyrics.com/entertainer-lyrics-billy-
joel.htm...](http://www.metrolyrics.com/entertainer-lyrics-billy-joel.html)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entertainer_(song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entertainer_\(song\))

~~~
Someone
_" since a 7-inch 45 RPM record (the standard "single") had a recording
capacity of about 5 minutes per side.[1]"_

[1] also says:

 _" Since the grooves are so spaced out and the records spin so fast, a
standard 10-inch 78 can't hold more than about 3 minutes of music per side"_

=> That 3 minute norm may predate the popularity of the 45 RPM single.

