JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Musician Message Forum Time constraints on songs....what is too long for radio?

I insist on keeping mine within a range of 3-1/2 to 5 minutes. The 3-1/2 minute rule no longer has a reason--it used to be, years ago, the maximum amount of music you could physically fit on a 45-rpm record (remember those?). The 5 minutes is the maximum length allowed by a lot of song contests; if you want to send them something, it better be under 5 minutes. I mostly find it a convenient "box" to work in.

Yes, Dylan, Arlo, the Dead and others could go on for much longer than that and not lose their audiences (well, with the Dead, the audience may have been lost beforehand), and still get played on the radio--but I can't, for sure. We have to deal these days with declining attention spans of the public. 5 minutes may well be pushing it (though I'm not going to change my rules).

As far as fade-outs, no, I don't do them. I intend my songs to be performed, either solo or with a band, and I am not able to do fade-outs on stage. (Well, there is one song we end with a fade-out--but the band had to work really hard at it to do it on stage. Mostly, I wouldn't bother.)

Joe