On Fri, 2 Dec 1994, John Shaft wrote:
quoted 14 lines On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Harvey Thornburg wrote:> On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Harvey Thornburg wrote:
> >
> > I remember a similar argument about the Orb's Blue Room - it was supposed to
> > be 40:00 but everybody's CD had 39:58. Possibly this is characteristic of
> > all CD's, in the way the manufacturer measures time and the CD player does
> > so?
> >
> I heard this was because it was illegal(?) to make a single in britain
> longer than 40 mins, so they made the single intentionally 39:58. is the
> 40min law true?
>
> john
>
>
The 40 minute rule relates to singles being considered for the charts. A
single that exceeds 40 minutes will not be considered, presumedly to
prevent record companies from enticing buyers with numerous 'bonus'
tracks or remixes. At one time the limit was 20 minutes (can't remember
when it changed) so US singles were much sort after as they often doubled
or tripled the playing time of the UK version.