Blog1 min read
On the silence between tracks
What you don't hear is doing more work than people think.
Most streaming platforms close the gap between tracks down to nothing. One song ends, the next starts. Smooth. The smoothness is sometimes right, but a small silence between tracks is doing work, and stripping it out flattens a playlist into a single shape.
Silence is what tells the listener a track has ended on purpose. A track that fades into another track is being mixed; a track that ends and pauses for a beat before the next one starts is finishing a thought. Both are useful tools. Neither should be the default for everything.
I notice the silence most on the sleep and wellness playlists, where a half-second of room between tracks is sometimes the most generous thing the playlist offers. On the focus playlist, slightly tighter — less air — because the music is filling a room where work is happening. Lo-fi has the most variable silences; the playlist breathes more than the others.
If a streaming platform forces a tight crossfade, there's not much I can do. But knowing how the silence works changes which tracks I put next to each other. A piece that ends on a long held tone deserves the air after it. Don't cut into a held tone.