Friday, May 9, 2014

"Skipping songs has become an addiction"

Business Insider: Data Show Our Attentions Spans Have Become So Short, We Can Barely Listen To A Whole Song Straight Through

"Our favorite music data guru Paul Lamere, the director of developer platform at The Echo Nest — which was just purchased by Spotify — and the guy who brought you your state's most relative favorite band, is out with new data showing the magnitude of the habit. He mined Spotify's vast pool of listener data, and came up with some astonishing results." (read more)

Here's the first one, showing what percent of listeners listen to what percent of a given song. It shows:
  • Nearly a quarter of all songs on Spotify get skipped within five seconds of starting.
  • More than a third are skipped within 30 seconds.
  • Nearly half of all songs are skipped at some point.


29 comments:

edutcher said...

Maybe quality has something to do with it.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"Hold on Loosely" is one of many, many pop recordings that should have been cut down to 2'30" so I say the kids are all right.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Skipping a streaming song is just way too easy.

Rabel said...

"Data Show Our Attentions Spans Have Become So Short, We Can Barely Listen To A Whole Song Straight Through"

No, the data don't.

Rabel said...

A little follow-up from one of yesterday's posts - Heh

Amartel said...

I'm an inveterate channel changer, music and tv, unless it really grabs me. Therefore, I leap to the conclusion that this is not a new thing, it's just measureable now due to technology. It may also be due to the fact that almost all contemporary pop music is overproduced, underimagined mush. IMHO, of course.

Chip S. said...

@Rabel--Does that mean the company can now sue Amazon?

bagoh20 said...

It's far worse than that. I read online while waiting for a video to load with the stereo playing and the TV on. I absorb absolutely nothing, but who cares because

IT'S FRIDAYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Rabel said...

I take it that the message from Bezos was, "Don't fuck with my customers." Followed by a bloody horse's head in the Mediabridge boardroom.

Rabel said...

"Does that mean the company can now sue Amazon?"

Maybe, but they'd be better off suing their lawyers.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thanks for that tip Rabel.

KCFleming said...

Attention is fine, but nausea and pain spans are short, hence skipping.

Most songs are just musical squirrels anyway.

KCFleming said...

Flat songs are the best for skipping.

ricpic said...

Impatient people miss everything.

ricpic said...

None of these song skippers will ever sit through Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor. Because they're punks! Not me. I was a punk. But now I sit there with Cesar and we're happy, so happy, while the punks go darting around in distress. Do I have anything to teach them? No. They'll have to learn for themselves. Or not. Cela.

The Dude said...

The works of Anton Bruckner will be known not to the ADHD generation.

I really like long form classical music. If what you are saying can be stated in a few minutes it had better be darned good or I am not going to listen to it.

Paddy O said...

Maybe it has to do with the content. I listen to Pandora a fair amount and tend to skip songs because the choices don't fit with the genre or I already don't like it.

I don't think it's the fact that people have shorter attentions spans. More likely it has to do with the

rhhardin said...

Nobody watches porn to the end either.

7 minutes for guys.

In the old days, the TV repairman comes in and you'd be interested in where the conversation with the woman goes.

Chip Ahoy said...

Non¢ a 10 shen spns r not shrt.

You can tell what you like right away. Songs with slow building starts chupa la iguana muy grande. And contrarily, when you like a song, even a long song, you can listen to it repeatedly. Like this:

Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody,

Mamaaa ew-ewEWEWew...

john said...

I'm skipping this post and going right to Dude, but I'll probably be back before I finish writing this comment.

chickelit said...

I've completely skipped "Spotify" and I'm the sort who doesn't skip songs.

Does that count for anything?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

As Chip pointed out so correctly, I hoard songs... so I don't skip... I never skip a song... I never pass up a song... I'm the opposite of a song skipper.

bagoh20 said...

"Nobody watches porn to the end either."

The end of what?

Unknown said...

I forgot how hairy those guys were.

rcocean said...

That's because songs don't get significantly better as they go along. Usually they just repeat the same thing with worse lyrics.

rcocean said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
virgil xenophon said...

LOL April Apple!

virgil xenophon said...

PS: You must be a Ron Jeremy fan, I see, lol,,

Mitch H. said...

I would think it would be because a crap song came on and they're avoiding it, if over a quarter are "5 seconds or less". That's long enough to identify a dud in your rotation. My friend plays from spotify or something like it when he hosts game night, and the sets he chooses sometimes get 'stuck', playing the same three songs in varying order.

I'm used to the Japanese composers who score anime, and a lot of the time, the hackier ones can crap out one or two great hooks, but not a complete composition, so you'll often get a brilliant, original five to fifteen second opener, followed immediately by the most bland, soulless, insipid j-pop you can imagine.