ideal length of a song?

[errant tree]

what's the ideal length of a song? I'm planning to compose a song but i don't know what length it should be.

[tawny wren]

That depends on the song.

It can be 30s or 30 minutes

Pop songs usually are around 2:30 to 3:30, tho

[errant tree]

Aight thanks

[mortal totem]

As the person said above it depends on the material and the creative direction you wish to take. Most stuff on the radio is 3 minutes +-30 seconds with a lot even as short as 2 minutes

[errant tree]

Cool

[mortal totem]

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shy away from longer song structures

I have some stuff where the arrangement goes over 5 minutes and there have been hit songs that have unusually long lengths of 4,5, even 6 minutes

[errant tree]

Nah im just starting out

[tawny wren]

You never know when and what kind of inspiration strikes

Just do what feels right

The music I do and usually listen to often has song lengths starting at 5 minutes going to over 20