Need to write this down somewhere… Am just listening to an album made up entirely of 2-3 min tracks*.
Resolution: I should get with the brevity, loads of the music I most like is 3 mins long. (I seem to find it difficult to be concise)
(* this for refrence - https://principediscos.bandcamp.com/album/c-digo-de-barras)
What’s yours?
…maybe you don’t have to and your tracks shouldn’t be forcedly of that time length?
I mean, it’s a matter of opinion/desire of course, but I personally admire the ability to make a really stripped down groove into a compelling 2-3 mins.
A big fan of 90s/00s dancehall riddims for example.
I’m not saying I’ll never make a nine minute super lush prog house record (although it’s unlikely) but I find it useful to have goals/rules/maxims to work, and I think I’d improve my productivity by being quicker to accept that there is “enough to work with” rather than spending time trying to add things that aren’t necessarily needed.
But I was also interested to see what other people are planning to change about their method…
(seeing what comes out is also perfectly valid of course!)
having rules/goals is definitely something that helps i think, especially when there’s the need for something to push things forward, else one could end up just sitting there, staring at something and go nowhere.
i was more trying to say that maybe at times there’s no need to put pressure and if in a specific moment in time things work out the way they do, well, just let things flow that way…on the other hand, yeah, having some sort of rules to adhere to is helpful. i’ve been doing that for a while now once i realized i needed something that would somehow force me to do things in a specific way and that meant limiting the tracks length and number of machines used…it has worked for a while but starting to feel the need to get back to some creative freedom 
ha, yeah, for sure - one of the best things about setting rules is the day you decide you’ve had enough of them and get to explore all the stuff you’d walled off in the first place
Have a go at it, see how you get on. Restraints and experimentation can be useful.
IMO really short tracks can be great for quick blasts and leaving people wanting more, but it’s tied to genre to an extent. A two minute techno track will likely leave listeners wanting MUCH more. In Punk / Pop / Ska / Outsider stuff (etc) it often works well. Also little intros or bridging tracks in any genre. Or you can go full Melt Banana and play a fifty track live set lasting half an hour 
I wrote about it in another thread, but I’m planning to stop ogling gear I don’t have for a year and get to know my stuff inside out, whilst hopefully finishing a lot more tracks with all the extra time.
…songs under 3 minutes…
common thing these days…while times are changing…and next new rules apply…
…albums are dead…but the feel of well made collections will always touch us…
so, any collection of tracks beyond two, counts already as an album…
so at least one short track for the tease…
and one to take a deep sonic dive…
remains always best of both worlds…
and to be honest…many stories/ideas can be told to the end within 3 minutes…
i once was mastering the mantra of ever evolving scapes…
but now i expect obvious changes at least every 4 bars…
nailing the point is always a good thing…
I was just talking to a friend (oldschool NYC hiphop DJ) about this. There was a time where albums took on concepts (think plastikman) and even when mixtapes had themes and lots of custom interludes. It boils down to attention span. During those times getting music wasn’t as immediate so I think the artists aimed for longevity vs. immediate gratification. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new music these days as well, and even a lot of those short tracks, but I do feel that with the tools available right now you can sit and make X beat that sounds great - but has no individuality, its just a great beat…which isnt necessarily bad, just different approach and goals.
Noboy listen long track today. Things must to be short and consumed quickly.
Why make a track of 3min if you can make an entire album in 3:45 ?
I’m struggling right now to finish up a 10 track album on my old 2011 imac with Ableton Live 10. Constant crashes, spinning beachball of doom, etc. Very frustrating. I’m seeing interesting things afoot at Apple with the new ARM processors, but it might be another year or two before they release an iMac.
So, I’ve decided to make an album in a different genre than my usual. I think I might make an ambient dub techno album (or even just ambient) using only 8 tracks max per song. Probably will limit myself to stock Ableton devices as well. Hopefully that will not bog down my computer so much and be a nice little break from my usual groove-heavy and melody-driven music.
So there you go, pushed into a new genre via lack of computing power. 
Love it!