The saga of songs < 3 min: evaluation of my own listening behaviour and how difficult it is to analyse and interpret data

I used to listen to a lot of J-Rock, where it’s not uncommon to have songs ~ 6 min long. Therefore, I rather firmly believed I didn’t like the trend of songs getting shorter and shorter. When I had a look at my stats for the first half of this year (I used statsforspotify), I got curious and decided to analyse my data in a bit more detail.

Preface: I mainly listen to music while running or commuting (I don’t stream for the sake of streaming) and I tend to listen to songs on repeat. It’s not unusual I will listen to just one song when going for a 10k run. I create playlists, usually sorted according to artist (so I have a playlist called “BTS” or “GOT7”), but I also have random playlists such as “kpop” or “non kpop”. This means, I will not listen to random music because I have pre-selected songs that I definitely like. And now for the data!

First up, my top 10 from January to June 2025 (song length and year released taken from spotify):

Track list Title Artist Song length Year
1 Nanana GOT7 03:07 2022
2 Slow Mo BamBam 02:32 2022
3 Bad Desire (English vs) Enhypen 02:21 2025
4 Python GOT7 02:31 2025
5 Switch it up Jay B 03:35 2021
6 Poet Artist SHINee 03:24 2025
7 Hot Seventeen 03:17 2022
8 Just right GOT7 03:42 2015
9 Thunder Seventeen 02:44 2025
10 Darling GOT7 02:41 2025

What caught my attention:

– 5 songs under 3 min

– 4 out of those “under 3 min songs” are from 2025

– Shortest song: 02:21 (2025, Enhypen – Bad Desire)

– Longest song: 03:42 (2015, GOT7 – Just right)

Conclusion: Surprisingly, I don’t seem to have a preference for shorter or longer songs.

Next, my top 30:

Track list Title Artist Song length Year
1 Nanana GOT7 03:07 2022
2 Slow Mo BamBam 02:32 2022
3 Bad Desire (English vs) Enhypen 02:21 2025
4 Python GOT7 02:31 2025
5 Switch it up Jay B 03:35 2021
6 Poet Artist SHINee 03:24 2025
7 Hot Seventeen 03:17 2022
8 Just right GOT7 03:42 2015
9 Thunder Seventeen 02:44 2025
10 Darling GOT7 02:41 2025
11 Ribbon BamBam 03:07 2021
12 Don’t Wanna Cry Seventeen 03:23 2017
13 Super Seventeen 03:20 2024
14 Love Loop GOT7 03:42 2019
15 So 4 more BTS 03:55 2014
16 You calling my name GOT7 03:14 2019
17 Last Friday Night Katy Perry 03:50 2010
18 Take it easy BamBam 02:07 2023
19 Rebirth Jimin 02:24 2024
20 Love Hangover Jennie 03:00 2025
21 Out the door GOT7 03:34 2025
22 Ghost BamBam 02:37 2023
23 Slow Dance Jimin 03:08 2024
24 Let me love you BamBam 03:13 2022
25 Ball like that BamBam 02:42 2024
26 Face GOT7 03:28 2017
27 Good things go Linkin Park 03:29 2024
28 Wild Flower RM 04:33 2022
29 Sherlock SHINee 03:59 2012
30 Drunk GOT7 03:21 2019
Mean length 03:12

What caught my attention this time?

– 10 songs under or equal 3 min, all of these songs are from 2022 to 2025. Interestingly, 6 songs from BamBam made it into the list – out of which 4 are sub 3 min. Does he have a tendency to create shorter songs? And does he skew my results?

– 8 songs are over 3:30 min, released between 2010 and 2025

– Shortest song 02:07 min (2023, BamBam – Take it easy)

– Longest song 04:33 (2022, RM – Wild Flower)

– Only 2 songs are non kpop and only 3 feature female singers. Again, does this skew my results?

Conclusion: I don’t seem to care about how long the song actually is. There is a wide range between the shortest and longest song. I’ve had a look at the longer songs and asked myself if I would still listen to them if they didn’t have a bridge. And yes, I absolutely would, because they’d still be bangers.

So what would be my take away as an artist? As I don’t seem to care about the length of the song, it makes sense for the artist to create shorter songs. A 2:30 min song will get played 24x within one hour. A 3:00 min song 20x, a 3:30 min song 17x. I can listen to BamBam’s “Take it easy” 28x within an hour, whereas RM’s “Wild flower” would only get played 13x!

I am in the process of analysing data from several groups (will try both kpop and non kpop and also include girl groups) to see if the songs are really getting shorter over time. I might make a separate post about this in case there is any interest for that.

submitted by /u/Anni3401
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