Photo of Charli XCX by Kaitlin Christy
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If you've ever listened to the radio and gotten tired of the song playing after 90 seconds, you may want to head up to Canada.
90.3 AMP, a Top 40 station in Calgary, Alberta began adjusting its airplay this month to now include "twice the music." Except in reality, it's just editing actual pop songs, trimming off intros, verses and bridges until all that's left is roughly a 90-second to two-minute clip.
Citing market research, Newcap Radio vice president Steve Jones told NPR the company believes their target audience is "suffering from a sort of iPod fatigue, where they would listen to 90 seconds or two minutes and then change to the next song."
Jones considers the magic three-and-a-half minute radio song a thing of the past. He also believes artists won't mind because songs are already being "edited or altered or remixed to suit the needs of various radio stations. So the idea that artists’ integrity drives what is heard on the radio I think is a bit of a fallacy."
Think this is just a fringe experiment? The so-called Quickhitz radio format began testing in the U.S. two years ago. In fact, 93.1 FM in Decatur, Ill., was among the first to convert. And according to the company behind marketing Quickhitz, "a lot of people can’t detect the music has been edited."
You can listen to the music live for yourself here. You'll notice songs like Disclosure's "Latch," Charli XCX's "Boom Clap" and Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" begin at or near the chorus. But would the average pop radio listener notice? Would they miss the rest of the song? That is still up for debate.