The current state of music

[Enjoyed]

OK. Who wants to join me in an old-man-yells-at-cloud discussion about music at the moment?

Prompted by a few recent topics on here;
• The new Weval album, clocking in at 33 minutes,
• Our discussion about the algorithm, in regards to the recent collection of new Chems remixes
• Some personal trouble I've had tracking down "Extended" versions of tracks

On the topic of Weval, I don't think any of the tracks necessarily feel short. And an extended runtime doesn't just = better song/journey, but it does feel like there is a growing trend towards keeping things tight and tidy - again, likely for the purpose of the algorithm and an audience with a shorter attention span OR maybe just less time to spend listening to music concertedly?

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Anjunadeep. I've been a fan for a long time (ever since they put out a free compilation through Amazon, completely chock full of bangers) and made a point to listen / download and, before they sadly moved away from releasing CDs, purchase as much of their output as I could.
The CD topic is related because, as someone who still regularly buys in that format, it seems to be increasingly more difficult to consistently find things on CD. A buddy of mine here in Portland attends a lot of shows, and I'm always asking him if they have CDs available at the merch stand. It's always no. Disclosure's latest album was a real treat, and I was very much looking forward to picking up a copy for myself (and my mum who's a big fan!) but it just straight up doesn't exist!

Now, sure. CDs likely don't sell well, are increasingly expensive to manufacture and distribute and it probably just doesn't make sense for the world of "club" music where most DJs are either still rocking vinyl, or have moved completely digital. That's fine, but I do think there was a small period during the transition where some bad decisions were made that resulted in some swayed data. Back to Anjunadeep - they started releasing albums on CD with edited track lengths. Not with a "Radio Edit" label mind you, but instead without the new standard which is "Extended Mix". So, I actually didn't buy a bunch of the more recent CDs from Anjunadeep because I didn't want to listen to the edited down versions of tracks from Eli & Fur, or Jody Wisternoff. The whole point of that music is to evolve and take its time, but for some reason there wasn't the space given for the CD format.

So, my gripe is that the external draw towards making and releasing 'shorter form' music, has, in some cases at least, diminished the quality of the output. If you go to listen to Jody Wisternoff's excellent 'Welcome to My World' on a streaming service, you'll find the runtime clocking in at 55 minutes, with an average track length of 3:45 - 4 minutes. The 'proper' version (with the "Extended Mixes") is 1 hour 11 minutes. It's not even THAT much longer, but streaming the album, you'll be getting what I would argue is a vastly subpar experience.

It comes back to the question of who is it for? Are Jody fans looking for a version of 'Tales From Beyond' that is 3:15 shorter for some reason? Surely DJs want the full thing to mix in and out of, and fans want to HEAR the whole thing??? And it's not like the 'Radio Edit' makes sense here. It's the algorithm again - if the shorter version gets snuck in on shuffle for someone, maybe a shorter runtime will hook someone in to go and seek out more?
I guess that's cool and all - but tracking down the full version is not so easy! And definitely not as readily available as the edited versions on streaming platforms. I couldn't find the full versions of those Jody songs, or some other Anjuna numbers anywhere. Not even as an uploaded YouTube video - I had to go buy the full version from Beatport (fine, they win, they got my money!). I don't like to buy mp3s - I want to buy a CD, but it doesn't exist with the full length content on it!

I don't know. I'm writing this all out and ultimately just getting mad at myself. Does it matter? No. Do I have and am I able to listen to the full versions of all these things? Yes. So what's my problem? I think I'm just feeling a disconnect between the artists, labels, and whatnot putting out art that feels already trimmed and chipped away at to satisfy some unspoken collective acceptance that short is good.

Those new Chems remixes are all under 4 minutes, right? They obviously fit into a strange in-between where an edited version does kind of make sense. They might very likely end up on the radio, or in a commercial or something, and fortunately (touch wood) the "full" versions still make it onto the album (though I'd argue they skimped on the "Harvest Mix" of TDTYF!) so I guess we're OK as Chems fans, for now. Could that change though? Are we being aged out of being able to readily enjoy a nice, long, evolving, spacious piece of music?

I just remembered that Tame Impala put out a 7 minute track as the first single to his new album - so maybe I just need to shut up

--

I am curious what y'all think though. Getting some other, fresher, and almost certainly more open-minded takes on the whole thing would be great!

[shakermaker]

I read that current technology is encouraging shorter recordings. A stream pays the same regardless of whether it is one minute or 10 minutes long, so you can get more income from 10 one minute songs than a single 10 minute opus. And if you're going for a tiktok trend then only a short portion of that needs to actually be good.

So may be why you're seeing shorter versions on streaming is in part because music producers are now incentivized to stream shorter recordings.

[shakermaker]

Another trend streaming has encouraged that I dislike - when a new single is released, prior singles from the same album are included as tracks 2, 3, etc.

I get why. When you hit play on a release it will stream all the tracks until the user tells it to stop, so you can get up to 3 streams if the listener hits play on a 3 track release, while you definitely won't get more than 1 stream if they hit play on a single track release.

But from any other perspective, it's at best pointless and at worst confusing, and feels kinda click-bait-y.

I can accept the death of b-sides, but really would prefer single-track releases would be presented that way on streaming platforms.

[Enjoyed]

I completely agree!

Although, I have to admit that the trend did sadly work out positively for me not minutes ago, when shuffle played a new Daphni track, and having clicked into the "single" I was able to listen to 2 other recent releases within the same page - which was quite nice

Obviously the difference here is that I wasn't tricked into giving more track streams - I opted into it. But perhaps an argument for making the tracks readily accessible for those who might be interested in more? Fine line, for sure.

[shakermaker]

I agree. I think that one is effectively a failure of the streaming platforms to anticipate user or stakeholder (or both) desires. They could design it so that it would be easy to listen to a series of an act's recent singles in sequence, but they don't, leaving artists/owners of that music resort to these workarounds.