How long should a intro be in general?

[Russell Landwehr]

It really depends on the genre and the use... 0-4 measures mostly for the TV stuff. More if you are doing an album, but make sure you have a radio cut with 0-4 measures intro.

[Casey H]

I remember listening to Blink 182's Buddha demo, the first song "Carousel." had an intro as long as 40 seconds into the song.

But then again the song was short

Although we want to emulate commercially successful songs in most ways, for what WE do pitching tracks, this is one area where we should never say, "But song 'title here' had a long intro and it's on the radio all time". We have lots of gatekeepers to get past: Taxi screeners, publishers, agents, artists, etc. We want them to still be listening 15-30 seconds in. A long intro can make them go "click" to the next track.

Russell is correct that if a track is for your own CD for sale on iTunes, etc., you can do whatever you want. But if you are pitching to music libraries/publishers, you want to use a short intro edit.

Best
Casey

[Len911]

Though it probably seldom is, I bet if the intro is the last part of the song you write, the better and most appropriate it should be.

[ottlukk]

I thought I posted this earlier, but the post seems to have disappeared, so here it is again: About a year ago, I read that the average length of an intro on a Billboard 100 song is 6.5 seconds. Ott

[Paulie]

35 seconds is way too long, that's longer than most commercials. Intros should be 4-8 bars, but there will always be excretions.

[sansharbour]

Unless the intro is incredible you run the risk losing the listener ......or the screener
They will turn it off to search for something more immediate

It sounds like you'r e having a hard time letting go of this particular intro
That's fine. Keep it then. It's your work and you can do what ever you want.

Just be aware of what others have said in this post.
95% of the time shorter is more effective.

Don

[Casey H]

35 seconds is way too long, that's longer than most commercials. Intros should be 4-8 bars, but there will always be excretions.

Whoa! Talk about autocorrect fail!!

Casey

[sansharbour]

Good eye Casey
thats my laugh for the day
still laughing

[mikemichnya]

Hey Fox,

Good comments here!

For songs, the slower the song, the shorter the intro (in bars). Two bars for a slow ballad, four bars for medium tempo, as many as eight for something really uptempo, and never more than 10-12 seconds, tops! Shorter is better, and the hookier the better...

Of course, when you're as successful as Blink 182, you can make your intro's as long as you want!

[Paulie]

O.M.G.





iPad autocorrect fail!