Singles vs Albums -- human attention span
As you would have certainly noticed, media is getting longer (but not this subtitle)
This issue was first inspired when I watched a press conference of a band with a recent album release. The band revealed the reason behind releasing their latest album as mini albums with two volumes — singles and mini albums are more popular than full-length albums.
You see, for the same reasons, videos are getting shorter. After Vine, we’ve got Tik Tok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Even songs are getting shorter too, if you’ve noticed — 2.5 to 3 minutes, not longer between 3.5 to 4.
Singles became popular and are recommended to artists over the album. It’s easier to release, helps the artist stay relevant and gains traction with more frequent releases. Also taking the short attention span of people nowadays to account.
Even books too. According to The New York Times, ’the average length [of books] has fallen 51.5 pages, which represents a decline of 11.8%’
Of course, like any case, there are exceptions to all of the above.
Another reason that inspired this issue is reading time. Generally, the shorter articles published on Medium, the better. A publication in short form works with 150 words or less exists.
When I was still writing on Medium, I would be lying if I said it was easy to publish longer (more than 8 minutes) articles, even though I was sure I wrote as concisely as I could, and I did not wish to omit any points. I was tempted to split an article into two parts, which didn’t make sense to me — it disrupted the flow of the story I was trying to tell. Personally, it felt like I was sacrificing the integrity of my work if I had split it into two parts, even though it gave me more content. Quantity over quality, in this case.
Well, I can only say that this phenomenon is yet another example of how insanely adaptable human beings are. We constantly work around whatever changes there may be. Though, I’m not sure where this shortening of media and artworks will lead in the future and how I feel about this. We worry more about capturing attention than expressing something. After all, it’s show business and its focus is on making money. In most cases, if not all, money above all else. It’s show biz.
Well, maybe a writer somewhere today is thinking of writing a shorter instead of a full-length book. Tonight, perhaps an artist somewhere around the world is stressing about releasing multiple singles even if he/she wanted to release an album.
But it’s all about churning out content. Short ones, and more frequently, perhaps. It’s all a competition to secure temporary attention from the eyes of a short attention-spanned audience.
It all comes down to priorities. Neither is wrong. Both help build the channel, portfolio of works, creator, the artist.