The median length of Billboard Hot 100 songs dropped from over four minutes in 2000 to around three and a half minutes in 2018.

告示牌熱門百大單曲排行榜上的歌曲，平均長度從 2000 年時的超過四分鐘， 在 2018 年降到大約三分半。

Music is changing because the way we consume music has completely changed.

由於我們收聽音樂的方式完全改變了，音樂也正跟著改變。

Streaming is now king.

現在串流才是王道。

It's the biggest source of revenue in the music industry and a way for artists to bring new attention to their work.

它是音樂產業中最大的收入來源，也是音樂人為作品吸引新聽眾的好方法。

So some music producers are changing the music they create to work the system in their favor.

因此有些製作人改變自己創作的方式以利現行的系統幫助他們的銷售。

But can chasing stream counts produce good music?

但是追求串流量能夠製作出好的音樂嗎？

I'm Eduardo Araujo.

我是 Eduardo Araujo。

This is Quartz.

您收看的是 Quartz。

Please subscribe to our channel.

請訂閱我們的頻道。

The way an audience listens to a song has shaped the music of every era.

聽眾聽歌的方式都塑造了每個時代音樂。

Radio spreads new sounds directly into our homes.

收音機將新的聲音直接送到家中。

The invention of the smaller forty five RPM record gives birth to the single that we know today.

45 轉細碟唱片的發明造就了我們現今所知的單曲。

Cassette tapes with their portability and ease of overdubbing gives birth to the mix tape.

便攜且容易復錄的卡帶造就了混音帶。

And now we are here.

我們現在是這樣。

Streaming makes up nearly half of all music revenue in the world.

串流幾乎佔了全世界所有音樂收益的一半。

With 232 million monthly listeners on the leading music platform Spotify, there is an unprecedented amount of data on who is listening and what they're listening to.

音樂平台龍頭 Spotify 上每月兩億三千百萬的聽眾提供了關於聽眾及所聆聽音樂前所未見的大量數據。

Now it's so much streaming data and information around, you know, not just how many plays they're getting but what territory people are listening to them in, right, what their audience looks like.

現在手邊都擁有非常多的串流數據及資料，不只能知道點閱率多寡，還能得知聽眾來自哪裡、長什麼樣。

Is it Millennial, is it older,? Right.

是千禧世代，還是老一輩的人？此類的數據。

Like you can really use data to figure out who you want to get in front of, who you want to focus on in a way that you never could before.

你真的可以用以前不可能的方式來使用數據找出你想面對、針對的聽眾群。

We have engineering over here, this is Max, creating the products of the future.

工程部在這裡，這是創造未來產品的 Max。

Jeff Ponchik is the co-founder and CEO of Repost, a company that helps artists use data to get more streams and followers.

Jeff Ponchik 是 Repost 的共同創辦人和營運長，這是個協助音樂家利用數據來得到更多串流量和粉絲。

So was that like one of the first things you did was get yourself a great programmer?

所以聘用出色的程式設計師是你首先做的是之一嗎？

Is that step number one?

是第一步嗎？

Yeah.

對。

Repost has only been around for three years and hand selects the artists it wants to work with.

Repost 只成立了三年，並親手挑選想合作的音樂人。

Repost functions like a distributor.

Repost 的功用很像經銷商。

Distributors used to sign deals with labels to act as middlemen between the label and the record stores.

經銷商以往都和唱片公司簽約並在唱片公司和唱片店間當中間人。

But now companies like Repost help them reach an audience on their own.

不過現今向 Repost 的公司幫助客戶直接不過現今向 Repost 的公司幫助他們直接自己觸及聽眾。

Via places like SoundCloud or Spotify or YouTube.

透過 SoundCloud、Spotify 或 YouTube。

Jeff estimates that less than 10 percent of Repost's clients actually live off their music revenue.

Jeff 估計只有低於百分之十的客戶真的靠音樂收入維生。

But it does open a new door to artists that wasn't there before in the age of the record label.

不過這還是位音樂人開啟了先前唱片公司年代沒有的一扇門。

Like, not everyone is going to be the next Beyonce, right?

不是每個人都能成為下一個碧昂絲，不是嗎？

But you might be able to make five ten thousand dollars a month then, you know, make a living doing what you love and not have to work at Starbucks anymore.

但你可能可以每個月賺個五千到一位美元，然後可以靠作喜愛的是養活自己而不用再到星巴克工作。

One way to maximize profit from streaming is understanding how payments are made.

最大化串流獲利的其中一個方式就是了解如何達成付款。

The amount artists receive on a single play is minuscule.

音樂人一個播放數獲得的收入是極少的。

Jeff says that on Spotify that number is somewhere around 0.004 cents per play.

Jeff 說 Spotify 每播放一次大約只值 0.004 分美元。

To make any real money they need millions of streams, and that means playlists have become the gatekeepers to being heard.

需要好幾百萬串流量才能夠真的賺到錢，這代表播放清單成了「被聽見」的守門員。

On Spotify, it's all about getting in those big Spotify playlists, right?

在 Spotify 中，一切都在於擠進那些大型的 Spotify 播放清單，不是嗎？

That's how you get discovered.

那就是被發現的方法。

Getting your first playlist is definitely very exciting.

第一次進到播放清單實在非常令人興奮。

It's just crazy like you never really expect that.

非常瘋狂，根本沒有預想到會這樣。

And then all of a sudden your song gets a bunch of streams and you're like wow this is, this feels good, like, finally my work kind of paid off.

一瞬間你的歌曲就得到了好多串流量，就會覺得說，哇！這好棒，我的努力終於有回報了。

Some people are hearing it.

有人在聽自己的音樂。

Twuan is a lo-fi hip hop producer from Salt Lake City.

Twuan 是來自鹽城市的低保真嘻哈樂製作人。

He started making music at home in high school.

他從高中開始就在家做音樂。

Now he's working with Repost and says he's living entirely off of his streaming revenue.

他現在和 Repost 合作，並且能夠完全靠串流收入維生。

Getting on a playlist takes luck and strategy to catch the attention of a human curator, or game an algorithm.

擠進播放清單需要運氣和技術來吸引真人評審注意或是玩弄演算法。

But there's something simpler artist can do to increase profits.

但還是有個音樂人能增加收益較簡單的方法。

Make songs shorter.

把歌變短一點。

If you upload a song to specifically Spotify that's an hour long or you upload a song that's a minute long, the amount of revenue you're going to get for either/or is going to be the same per listen as my understanding.

就我所知，若是在 Spotify 上，上傳一首一小時長的歌或一首一分鐘長的歌，兩首歌得到的收益多寡是一樣的。

You release an album with a ton of songs on it that are really short, so it can cycle through as many tracks as quickly as possible.

發布一張有一堆歌取時間較短的專輯，這樣就可以快速地循環播放這些歌曲。

It's kind of a way to hack more revenue.

這是獲得更多收入的方法。

It's a matter of math.

只是數學問題而已。

Sixty one minute songs will make 60 times as much as a 60 minute song.

六十首一分鐘的歌，能賺取比一首六十分鐘的歌再多六十倍的錢。

The structure of the song matters, too.

歌曲的結構也很重要。

Spotify only pays for songs once the listener has passed the 30 second point.

Spopity 只會付錢給播放超過 30 秒的歌曲。

This means the first 30 seconds are crucial.

這代表前 30 秒相當重要。

What we hear in the first 30 seconds of the song has become almost an overture if you will.

想想看，歌曲的前三十秒變成像種序曲。

If we were talking about a Broadway production, and we'll hear certain themes that we may hear reverberated again throughout the rest of the song.

舉百老匯音樂劇樂曲開頭為例，我們可能會聽到在歌曲其餘部分重複迴響的特定主旋律。

While there are certainly deviations, traditionally songs are written in ABABCB structure.

雖然一定有些例外，傳統上都是以 ABABCB 的架構來寫歌。

But one tactic artists use to keep people engaged is to move that B, the chorus or the hook, to the very top of the song.

但音樂人讓聽眾保持投入的技巧就是，把 B 段，也就是副歌，移到歌曲最前面。

So that listeners are always waiting for the catchiest is part of the song to come back around again.

這樣聽眾就會不斷等到再次聽到歌曲最洗腦的部分。

And you can hear the effects of that in modern pop.

你可以在現代流行樂中聽車這個現象。

Like with this song.

就像這首歌。

And this song.

和這首。

And this song.

還有這首。

But beyond the data and the money, there's the craft of actually writing songs you're proud to put your name on.

不過除了數據及金錢以外，還有技術能寫出令自己驕傲地標註自己上名字的歌曲。

For many artists, balancing true creativity with market driven needs is crucial.

對很多音樂人來說，在真實創意和市場導向需求中取得平衡相當重要。

I do see and acknowledge cynically that I could use different tactics to make money, but I don't want to spend my time thinking that way.

我很憤世嫉俗的認知到我能用這些技巧賺錢，但我不想要浪費時間一直那麼想。

I think the biggest danger with streaming services is that artists aren't going to be encouraged to make commercially viable, challenging work because it's not how they make money.

我認為串流服務危險的地方在於，音樂人們不會被鼓勵創作出有商業展望及挑戰性的音樂，因為那不是他們賺錢的方法。

Streaming music has utterly transformed the music industry.

串流音樂已完全改變了整個音樂產業。

It has transformed the music that we hear.

它改變了我們所聽到的音樂。

And it has transformed the way that we discover and consume music, in general, in ... ubprofound ways that I think we're only just beginning to understand.

整體而言，它深深改變了我們發現、收聽音樂的方式，而我們才剛開始意識到。

Hey. We're making a series for Quartz members we think you'll really like.

嗨，我們正在為 Quartz 會員制做一個系列影片，我們覺得你會喜歡。

It's called "Because China" because China is reshaping our world in all kinds of important and interesting ways.

叫做「因為中國」，因為中國正以重要且有趣的方式重塑著我們的世界。

Click the link here for a free membership trial to get access to exclusive videos and articles.

按下連結來免費試用會員功能來看獨家的影片和文章。

Quartz members get a daily education in the forces defining the global economy.

Quartz 會員每天都能學習到關於主宰全球經濟的強權的事。