A 2018 study by San Francisco-based engineer Michael Tauberg concluded that songs on the Billboard Hot 100 shed around 40 seconds since 2000, falling from 4:10-ish to roughly 3:30. The average length of the top 50 tracks on Billboard‘s year-end Hot 100 in 2021 was even less, a mere 3:07. “It’s a reaction to the culture of soundbites that we moved towards,” says Vincent “Tuff” Morgan, VP of A&R at peermusic. “I have producers in the studio this week just going through and making songs shorter.”
Source: Here’s Why Shorter Songs Are Surging (And Why Some Welcome It)