The once-ubiquitous, but tragically underappreciated fade-out in music appears to be near its end. And like a classic example of itself, the decline has been long, gradual, and barely noticed.

Older songs were always fading out at the end of every song while the artist was still singing or the music was still on, nowadays just about every song stops when the song has ended, why is that? I know is nitpicking at something small, but I’ve really been wondering this for a while now.

Radio doesn’t play fades anymore, probably because they take up too much time. That’s probably the same with pop music in general, especially dance-oriented pop music, or anything that touches on EDM. Fading out serves as more of a distraction and it’s probably more appropriate for the genre to end on a stop rather than a fade. It’s less distracting and time-consuming.

I assume it’s down to not being on vinyl anymore. Anything a bit later might have just carried on the tradition.