Do songs on the radio play faster?

Question

Okay, I was listening to the radio, and it seems that the songs are played a bit faster on the radio. Is this true??? And if so, WHY do stations do this???

Answer 1

No, they shorten songs sometimes like shortening the intro or skipping the last few beats but they dont speed them up

Answer 2

songs on the radio play the speed of the dj unless it is a recording or taped at a faster or slower speed.  it can.

Answer 3

Im not sure about that, but i know that sometimes they cut out the introduction of the song and the end part

Answer 4

wow i never noticed that XD

they probably do

Answer 5

Some stations speed up the tracks by about 0.01 - 0.1 bpm. It raises the attention of the listener. Because it counts as editing i believe it's illegal to do it on UK Radio, but some stations still do despite...

x

Answer 6

Third is closest but here's the old theory (not in use very often nowdays). Some programmers think that if you hear a song slightly faster on their station it will make the competing station(s) sound slow and not as crisp and exciting when they play the same song.

It's not necessarily done to get more music or commercials played as the increase is minimal - done correctly, you shouldn't be able to hear the difference. The fact that you've noticed, leads me to believe you are listening to a station whose program director is taking the practice a bit too far.

We used to record 45s at about 46-46.5 RPM to get this effect. Did it work? Who knows, we used to do lots of things to s***w with the competition - still do ;<)

-a guy named duh

Answer 7

i noticed the same thing the other day. a song came on the radio that i have on CD and it seemed like the radio was faster. maybe they do this to increase the amount of air time needed for commercials and (ugh) talking

Answer 8

Sometimes they do.  Dj's speed songs up, cut songs short, and sometimes both.

Answer 9

Sometimes they do it to speed things up to play more songs.  They think the "average listener" has a very, very, very short attention span and they need to constantly be changing things to keep people's attention.  They also have more time for commercials this way.

Answer 10

i have always wondered about this, i hear a song on the radio and then i download it and it sounds slower and sometimes different