{"id":7375,"date":"2015-11-09T06:53:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T06:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/?p=7375"},"modified":"2015-12-06T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T12:02:12","slug":"3-reasons-shorter-song-length-hip-hop-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/3-reasons-shorter-song-length-hip-hop-music\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons Why Shorter Song Length is BEST &#8211; Hip Hop Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Does the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>length<\/em><\/span> of your music actually matter?<\/strong>\u00a0Here are three\u00a0major reasons why\u00a0releasing your music with a <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">shorter<\/span> song length<\/strong>\u00a0is better and generally speaking why you as an independent recording artist, rapper, singer or producer would want to give careful consideration to this before releasing your next project or single.\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">I\u00a0first want to focus on\u00a0two primary points<\/span>, and I&#8217;ll\u00a0throw in some bonuses at the end.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ix6wboW71dE\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Specifically for\u00a0the independent recording artist or musician who is trying to cut through the clutter of all other\u00a0music being distributed now online &#8211; and even for music producers who are working with artists and\/or maybe selling your instrumentals online &#8211; why you would want to consider shorter, more compact\u00a0instrumentals or projects.<\/p>\n<p>First thing&#8217;s first. I must mention that whether or not you release\u00a0a longer, moderate, or\u00a0shorter length song\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0it must, above all,\u00a0be <em>good<\/em>.\u00a0You can have a seven minute song that&#8217;s garbage &#8211; and\u00a0even if you condense it down to only three\u00a0minutes\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0it is still three\u00a0minutes of garbage. <strong>Quality comes first. Always.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Having said that, there are a number of benefits to creating\u00a0music that has a shorter song length.<\/p>\n<p>To help define what I&#8217;m\u00a0thinking of when I say a &#8220;shorter song&#8221; &#8211; tracks from Hip Hop, Pop or other urban genres or any song\u00a0that would traditionally in 2:30 &#8211; 7:00 minute range.<\/p>\n<p>And so here are a few\u00a0arguments for why releasing\u00a0music on the lower end of that spectrum (appx. 2:30-3:30) would help you as an independent to help cut through the music clutter on the web.<\/p>\n<h4>Why a Shorter Song Length is Better<\/h4>\n<h2><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">1. To Keep Listener Rete<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">ntion<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We live in a very ADHD, short attention span world. How many times are you online with multiple tabs open in your\u00a0browser, \u00a0listening to various music on Facebook or other social media platforms &#8211; and you\u00a0lose interest\u00a0within only a few seconds\u00a0you&#8217;re on to something else? This is how people are digesting and taking in their music, movies\u00a0and\u00a0news.<\/p>\n<p>Especially as a new artist or producer and musician, you need to make an impact <em>NOW<\/em>,\u00a0\u00a0because if someone does click the play button, you want to make sure you capture their attention right away. Because they can just easily bounce off and go to something else fifteen seconds later.<\/p>\n<p>I listen to a lot of music from independent artists and producers on a regular basis\u00a0and in the past I&#8217;ve\u00a0heard tracks that have been six and seven minutes long from someone\u00a0that I&#8217;ve never heard of before. Realistically speaking, for a potential fan\u00a0to go through and listen to a seven minute song\u00a0is just not going to happen.<\/p>\n<p>You could argue and say, <em>\u201cWell, if the song is really dope&#8230; and it is really good&#8230; and has multiple features.\u201d<\/em> Of course you have exceptions to every rule.<\/p>\n<p>You may have an extended remix with two or three different features, and it would inherently need to be a longer song. Ultimately, if you are looking for a new fan or to resonate with existing fan, you want to make an\u00a0impact. <strong>You want to get in and get out<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>You might think that four, five or six minutes isn&#8217;t really a long time. But in the fast-paced world that\u00a0we live in, <em>it is an eternity<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past several months, I&#8217;ve received a\u00a0lot of\u00a0music to be played on the <a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\/music-showcase.html\" target=\"_blank\">live music showcase event<\/a>. And one of the common\u00a0critiques I&#8217;ve made\u00a0is that the track\u00a0did not get to the point soon enough.<\/p>\n<p>A recording artist who is already established in a sense, they have more liberty to put out a\u00a0longer song because they have\u00a0leverage built and there will certainly be a core audience that listens, even if everybody does not.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I am a big fan of songs that are in that two and a half minute to just over three minute range. There may be exceptions where I&#8217;m working on a\u00a0slow tempo song that has an extended bridge\u00a0and ends up expanding\u00a0to four or five minutes long. But for me, when I format <a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\" target=\"_blank\">my hip hop beats<\/a>\u00a0I try to keep them as short and &#8220;tight&#8221; as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Two verses, two hooks, with maybe a little break down or a bridge. Ideally I like to keep it under three and a half minutes if possible. Some of the artists may want to extend the arrangement to a longer version,\u00a0and it could most definitely be\u00a0reformatted and changed up later. But I personally like to present it to the artist\u00a0as a potential short song. I want the artist to say what they have\u00a0to say and move on\u00a0to the next one.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">2. Replay Factor<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If I hear a really great song that&#8217;s only two and a half or three minutes long,\u00a0I&#8217;m so much more likely to go back play it again.<\/p>\n<p>And you <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/category\/marketing-branding-tips\" target=\"_blank\">marketing your music<\/a> as you have to be conscious of as an independent musician, the benefits of having a replay factor go without saying\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0people spinning your record over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>The shorter attention span of people now is something that you cannot deny. It&#8217;s something that you must always consider. Not to mention, if your goal is to get some sort of a radio play, having your music\u00a0tight and concise within that three minute range is going to fit to the radio\u00a0format and your track will typically work better in the mix of\u00a0all of the other\u00a0songs that are getting spun.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">BONUS:\u00a0Short Projects<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;ll also want\u00a0to consider shorter projects as a whole &#8211; whether you&#8217;re putting out a mixtape,\u00a0album or EP. \u00a0<strong>EPs are great!<\/strong>\u00a0 The shorter project is going to be better in my opinion\u00a0most of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Just think about this year\u00a0&#8211; the sheer\u00a0amount of music has been released on <a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/tcustomz\" target=\"_blank\">Soundcloud<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.datpiff.com\/TCustomz-TCustomzcom-Soulful-Hip-Hop-Instrumentals-mixtape.533218.html\" target=\"_blank\">Datpiff<\/a>, iTunes, <a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/tcustomzdotcom\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> and the countless other distribution platforms\u00a0out every single day. How many new artists are putting out mixtapes every single day\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0EPs, projects, artists trying to sell their music?<\/p>\n<p>Generally speaking, people are moving through music very quickly through music &#8211; hopping from artist to artist, song to song, project to project.\u00a0It&#8217;s a constant cycle because there is so much music is being flooded online and offline.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/a3c-festival-conference-2015-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\">When I was at the A3C Festival and Conference<\/a> earlier this year,\u00a0there were a lot of artists\u00a0passing out their CDs\u00a0and\u00a0thumb drives\u00a0&#8211; and some had business cards or flyers with a QR code to access their album from a mobile device.<\/p>\n<p>I remember one in particular, it<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0was literally\u00a0a THIRTY\u00a0track mix tape. For up and coming artists that have a very small fanbase, I don&#8217;t\u00a0see this approach being very effective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s NO\u00a0chance that anyone is going to listen to\u00a0an entire project that long. \u00a0In fact, if you don&#8217;t captivate them within the first song or two, they&#8217;ll most likely move on to something else.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">This is another reason why I love to see artists put out EPs, because by definition they are\u00a0smaller, more easily digestible projects. Your potential fans will be much more likely to\u00a0listen to an EP, than to\u00a0listen to a full link album or an extended mixtape from an unknown artist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><strong>Many of\u00a0your classic hip hop albums were\u00a0only ten or twelve tracks.<\/strong> They got in, they got out and\u00a0concisely conveyed their\u00a0message.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7394\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7394\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7394\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/classic-hip-hop-album-nas-illmatic.jpg\" alt=\"Nas - Illmatic\" width=\"510\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/classic-hip-hop-album-nas-illmatic.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/classic-hip-hop-album-nas-illmatic-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/classic-hip-hop-album-nas-illmatic-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nas &#8211; Illmatic<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Again, I am not saying other formats cannot work\u00a0-this is just my opinion\u00a0and\u00a0why I love shorter songs and projects. And this is why I format the majority of <a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\" target=\"_blank\">my instrumentals<\/a> in a shorter, condensed format. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4>In Closing<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Hopefully, this article can help you with an\u00a0upcoming project\u00a0or single you&#8217;re working on,\u00a0and off your\u00a0some song length and project length tips to consider before releasing them. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Focus in the quality of music.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Make your music\u00a0condensed and as short as possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Make that impact. Get in, get out. Deliver your message.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Have a\u00a0replay factor. It is going to give you the most probability of getting music out there, building your fan base and doing what you love long term.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>\u2014 LET\u2019S CONNECT! \u2014<\/h3>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m very reachable on the following:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/\">Official Website<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/tcustomzdotcom\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/tcustomzproductionz\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/tcustomz\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/tcustomz\" target=\"_blank\">Soundcloud<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/tcustomz\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<h5><em>PLEASE LIKE, COMMENT &amp; SHARE IF\u00a0YOU LIKED THIS VIDEO<\/em><\/h5>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/category\/marketing-branding-tips\" target=\"_blank\"><button class=\"btn btn-large btn-primary\" type=\"button\">Music Marketing &amp; Branding Videos &gt;&gt;<\/button><\/a><\/h3>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><button class=\"btn btn-large btn-danger\" type=\"button\">DOWNLOAD Hip Hop Beats &amp; Sound Kits &gt;&gt;<\/button><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Does the <em>length<\/em> of your music actually matter?<\/strong>\u00a0Here are three\u00a0major reasons why\u00a0releasing your music with a <strong>shorter song length<\/strong>\u00a0is better and generally speaking why you as an independent recording artist, rapper, singer or producer would want to give careful consideration\u00a0[&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[2148,2150,2191],"class_list":["post-7375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-branding-tips","tag-music-artist-tips","tag-music-marketing-branding-tips","tag-song-length","post-1","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7375"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7500,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions\/7500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}