Shorter songs on CDs? Back from a quick trip to Jacksonville, Florida. While travelling and listening to music on my PDA I had time to ponder the future of recorded music. Now that the cost of downloading a song is 99¢, I wonder if there will be more songs per CD.

Historically the length of most singles has been dictated by the three minutes preferred by radio stations. However, many other CD tracks are often longer, especially on jazz recordings. If songs are shorter, and there are 12 or 13 songs per CD vs. 8 or 10, the recording company will make more money. Unless most people will continue to buy and download the entire CD, in which case the song length wouldn't make any difference. Seems like I've heard that isn't the case, that most people are buying songs not CDs.

I took a quick look at CDs displayed at a local record store (are they called CD stores now?), and most CDs had 12 or 13 songs.
posted by Bruce Wright at 10:07 PM #