If this were really just a matter of a cultural shift, I wouldn’t be bothered. If it’s purposely a way to game the online music industry then that’s just greedy. I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle, as usual.
"Spotify and music streaming are to blame.
Like on the radio, all tracks are paid equally, regardless of length. But unlike radio, for the charts, streams are aggregated to equal sales. Nielsen Soundscan and Billboard count 1,250 premium audio streams, 3,750 ad-supported streams or 3,750 video streams as equal to one album sales.
So, in era of short attention spans and unlimited access to music, the easiest way to get more streams and rise up the charts, is to make each track shorter. Now, when a fan listens to a full album of 20 short songs instead of 12 onger ones, the total number of stream for each album played just jumped 66%.
‘[T]here has never been this kind of financial incentive to make shorter songs,’ tweeted former Pitchfork editor Mark Richardson."
(Via Songs Are Getting Shorter and Streaming Is To Blame - hypebot.)