Hit song metrics for 2011 - so far

I am very impressed by the data crunching that Jay Frank does in his book Future Hit DNA - we've looked at his stuff before here.

So, when he analyses all the hits of THIS year so far and tells you exactly what the science tells you about what is making a song a massive hit right now, I would take the time to take notice.

THE AVERAGE LENGTH OF INTROS IS 4.88 SECONDS
Intros are getting significantly shorter. Compared to last year, the average intro decreased by 37%. The Top 25 had an average intro length of 2.96 seconds. In fact, there were only two songs with an intro over 7 seconds. Last year, it was 2 of the Top 10. Now it’s 2 of the Top 25. And sales increased as a result. Expand to the Top 50 and it’s only 20% of the titles with intros longer than 7 seconds. That’s down from 48% last year. The chances of a song with a longer intro succeeding continue to decrease every year.

See what else he says here.