Song length ... why cut them ?

Along with that is the clubs that run the songs together so that you don't know where one ends and the next starts. An unscrupulous dancer can over charge you. Pleasers in Atlanta is one such club.

Yeah shadow – that is def another thing clubs can improve on

I haven't noticed this in my local area or when I've clubbed out of town.

But you're right, there's really no benefit of shortening songs. If anything, that will only draw people away.

In my local area, when they do a 2 for 1, the songs are purposely shorter because it's considered a "special".

But besides that, the dances I've gotten (even the $10 ones) don't seem to be shortened at all.

I’ve taken to timing songs from time to time when I club – that is a very PL thing to do I would agree – but it started b/c of my clubbing in black clubs where the DJ would cut/mix-in a song at any ole time even sub 1-minute – those familiar with black SCs would understand what I am saying.

Also – it’s hard to tell sometimes when one is busy looking at alt the T&A – but if one actually times the songs one day; one may be surprised that they may not be as long as one thinks.

Some SCs also run a bit of a trick where they will not play all songs at the same length - -i.e. they will play 2 or 3 at 3.5 mins for example and then play one at 2.5 mins – they mix around so you can’t really tell (and this is during non 2-for-x specials).

Anyway – I’ve noticed b/c after my black club experiences; I was curious w.r.t. other clubs and started to actually time them and was unpleasantly surprised.

I think it is 1 of 2 things:

1. They think it's unfair for one customer to get a 5 minute song for a lap dance and then the next to only get a 4 minute song, yet both have to pay the same.
2. It gives clubs a chance to cycle through their dancers while they are onstage faster.

I can understand 1), but I don't think the typical customer thinks they want their dancer to hurry up and get this lap dance over. As for 2), I think it's silly in most clubs, because they either have to do multi-song sets, or there are so few customers that's there's no point in cycling through dancers (which is how they end up with multi-song sets).

@papi - do dancers ever ask you what the stopwatch is for?

Song length for the customers' benefit is one thing. It's another for the dancers. In talking to a d.j. once about that subject he mentioned to me that he has a delicate balance to make. He has to please both the dancers and the customers. In most clubs, the same music that a dancer is dancing to while on stage is the same music that the dancers are using for their lap dances. The dancers on stage don't want to be on stage for as long as the customers would like to see their songs played for lap dances.

If songs are "too long," the dancers on stage will complain to the d.j. Still, I agree the clubs would benefit from longer songs, because the customers would be happier getting their money's worth. And, a happy customer . . ."

I was at a club last night that had different music for the private lapdances upstairs then it had for the downstairs area where the stage was. I wouldn't mind seeing more clubs with this model.

I like to time dances in various clubs to see who cheats and who doesn't. So far the best club in America has been the Inner Room Cabaret at between 3:50 and 4:35 over a five day period.

Based on ime’s and shadow’s comment earlier; I think the best thing would be as some have posted in the past about some clubs having a timer so one’s lap-dance time is irrespective of song-length or when a song begins or ends – that way one knows exactly what they are getting – but – I’ve never been to a club where dances are via a timer.

I never noticed the song cutting until a review mentioned it. It does piss me off. Kahoots in Columbus is the most consistent offender. The up times at Columbus gold are a joke because of song clipping

Also agree about the songs blending together.

I was once told the songs were shortened if there weren't many dancers working and they had to go on stage pretty often. The shortened songs kept the girls from getting too tired and, probably, pissed.

I personally would prefer no girls on stage than having my LDs cut

“… do dancers ever ask you what the stopwatch is for …”

Some do and I just say “it’s to wrap it around your neck and choke you with it if my song is too damn short”

But actually I use my cell ph and time the songs while I’m sitting in the main room and not interacting w/ dancers.

It's one of those things that never made sense to me. It's as if club management wants to make sure that customers never quite feel like they've gotten their money's worth -- or, in other words, exactly the opposite of what every other industry tries to do. That extra 45 seconds of a song probably means very little to the club, but it means a lot to a customer.

You're looking at this from the perspective up a frequent visitor. The average customer is probably not in often enough to notice the difference.

I also suspect many managers don't look at the reality they just think: longer songs = less dances sold

"Always leave them wanting more"?

Well, Subraman, I can imagine a certain twisted logic in making it be "oh, that was too little time to get what I wanted, let's go for more". But that soon clashes against monetary reality.

Setting aside those cases that P_C has noticed where it's the DJ apparently mixing to show off his Mad MC skillz in the hope of being "discovered", there's probably a combination of all the different factors mentioned. And yes, there's also the DJ who'll cooperate with overcounting gals by making it hard to tell how many was that. Fair being fair, I have OTOH been at clubs on nights when the DJ has been very disciplined in announcing when tracks begin and end and when the dancers must rotate -- I remember one who would count down the three songs in each stage set by announcing during which she was to lose the top and lose the bottoms.

On the subject of timer devices, I have been to clubs that use the bill-fed timers for the dance booths (mostly in California) and that is not a bad alternative IMO, if someone's not hung up on not paying a cent in advance (but then do bring smaller notes for tip purposes, since you can't tell her to keep the change). As always it's the dancer that makes it happen. It does require a specifically designated LD area with individualized booths/carrels, as opposed to just barside or loose seats in the back of the room (OK so I suppose they could set up casino-style tables with a built-in cashbox for table dances). It does bring its own pitfalls what with the system ocasionally not operating properly and the dancer having to head down to the control desk to get things straightened (lotsa luck getting credit...) but it does mean there's no chance of not knowing a dance has ended and another started.

Now, some people may feel the timer reinforces the mechanical/business transaction nature of what's happening, but hey, conversation can happen at the table, or at the longer-time VIPs.

I was recently at a club with music for the CR and separate music for the rest of the club. Often you couldn't hear both at the same time, but when you did, they CR song would start after and end first!

Good post and replies. Done some song timing at times. In my area song length 3:30 or more is good; most are 3' plus or minus.

At one club night shift has a dj who sometimes programs transition music between songs. Unless you catch him announcing something like "this is brandy second song" it's easy to lose count. I usually tell dancer before starting "let's do X songs, you keep trake" meaning that's all I prepared to pay.

Same club, day shift has no on-site manager or dj. One dancer each day is designated bar girl/dance counter [she can also do VIP if she lines up another dancer to watch bar]. Music is lower; no continuous stage dancing.

During slow times dancers program music they like. For VIP many dancers will program longer/slower tempo songs for regs. Same club literally night vs day difference.

I also occasionally time song length too. Most often I find 2:45 - 3:30 is the range. But damn, SC songs are never long enough.

And I was getting a high mileage dance at Phoenix's Blue Moon Lounge about six months ago when I mentioned to my Favorite dancer that the song just ending was awful short. She hollered to the manager/ door man/bouncer, and told him she was giving me another dance because that song was too short! Imagine that, an extra dance for free. Of course sbe got a big tip from me but that's another story. And songs at BML are played from a stage-side juke box.

I wasn't even timing songs at a platinum plus club one night but I thought, these so gs are awfully short. Made me not want to buy any lap dances. I think I will time some songs out of curiousity now. Never did that with a stop watch but I often have the ability.

cutting songs short is as bad as a dancer starting a minute or two into a song. One dancer did this and I never plan on getting another dance from her again. If she sees me not tipping her on stage anymore, she'll probably realize I'm not happy about something.

Makng you feel cheated is a great way to drive away customers or stop them from buying. Then the stupid club management wonders what's going on, business is down or dancers are complaining they aren't making much money. My favorites will give me a freebie if the DJ cuts something way short. If they don't, I won't be buying more.

T-pain wrote a song "long lap dance song"

Once in a great while the universe rebalances itself:

THREE times in the same evening the dj's music computer crashed.

NO MUSIC for several minutes until he got it rebooted.

Dancer on stage faked it for a few seconds then stopped and stared at the dj.

But imagine all those dancer-custy couples in VIP. Don't stop grinding babe!

I haven't noticed it in my area.

My favorite club used to have a setup where their champagne room had separate music from the main floor. You had to walk all the way across the building past the entrance and the dancer dressing room to get there. Hell, they used to just pop in a CD. They had several CD's, one of which was the one with the Norah Jones song which goes "Don't know why I didn't come", which I always thought meant that Norah Jones didn't know how to have an orgasm. I don't know that I wanted to hear that one in a champagne room. I also remember that one of the CD's was a blues CD where all the songs were secretly all about sex. I banged a few ladies when they played that one, including the infamous 60-something dancer they used to have. Of course, all of that ended when they ended up in court. I don't know of anywhere else that has ever had separate music for the champagne room, much less one that is still open like that.

Some of the Deja Vu clubs (and maybe others) have installed these "timed" parking meter devices so each dance, every dance is consistent.

There are many complaints about the sterile, corporate nature of these machines. But they do really help to eliminate much of the short songs and dancer mis-counts.

I'm just saying to those that don't like the machines that you can't have it both ways.

Short songs? In a strip club? Well I never!

Papi- They cut songs because they can. Idea being that if it takes, say, 10 minutes to achieve a certain level of satisfaction, PL will end up buying 4 dances vs 3. Clubs in SlickSpic's area are the worst offenders as the norm (based on half a dozen or so different area clubs 2005-2007) was often in the 2:15-2:30 range.4 Play was the only area club to play 3 minute songs. I have yet to hear real long songs like "Stairway To Heaven" or long version of "Time Has Come Today" in a stripclub.

The only rationale for cutting some songs that makes even a tiny bit of sense to me is the observation that songs vary dramatically in length and cutting the longer songs is a means of standardizing the "product" (be it a lap dance or a stage performance0.

As an example, the Beatles, "Why don't we do it in the road" is about 1:40 (I'm sure there are shorter songs that are also well known) whereas the Iron Butterfly's Innagaddavida tops out at over 17 minutes.

If given the choice, I'd take the Iron Butterfly song for my $20 lap dance although it might exhaust the dancer!

Followed by Don McLean's "American Pie" @ just over 8.5 minutes :-)

It’s understandable to cut a very long song – lets say cut at 4:00 minutes – my problem is not that they cut songs; is that they cut them too short – 3 minutes and under for a $25 lapper in my area is not good value and I feel like I’m getting gypped and makes me want to hold on tighter to my $$$ rather than let loose a bit more.

I remember a stage dance at the old Valley Ball in Van Nuys where they played Bolero all the way through. At that time they normally danced a three song set, and Bolero was the whole set for this girl.

This was way before lap dances.

Still waiting for them to play "Alice's restaurant " in the club. The version I have runs 18+ minutes.

A man can dream can't he?

Extremely obvious questions -- why ask them? "Shortsighted to shorten songs" would be a title for this thread that goes better with the OP.

Every table and every couch should have a timer, and the length of dances should be fixed. No pissed custies due to short songs. Dancers don't lose money waiting for the start of a song during the end-of-shift rush.

This would work better when it came time to raise prices, as all businesses eventually must. For example, if dances were $20 for three minutes, eventually the price would have to jump to $25. But the club could say "but, to soften the blow, dances before midnight will be 4 minutes!". After a while, 4 minutes before 11pm, and so on.

The solution is really simple. If you don't like a clubs policy on playing songs, go somewhere else.

If a letthemeatcake sock puppet ever starts posting, we'll know it's shadowcat.