Firaol
Asham! Odeessaalee Afaan Inglizii sirri ta’an akka hubattuuf bakka itti si barsiifnu gara Listen Here -baga nagana dhufte! An Firaolidha.

Tom
I’m Tom. Hi everyone!

Phil
And I’m Phil. Hi!

Firaol
Har’a muuziqaafi saffisaa dhufuu sirboota ykn faarulee mari’anna. What music do you like Tom?

Tom
I like rock music. It has good vocals.

Phil
I like everything. I prefer streaming. It makes it easier to access music.

Firaol
Vocals jechuun weelluu, streaming jechuun utuu wlirra hincitin kan taphatu jechuudha. Did you know some people believe that streaming music online is actually changing the songs people write?

Tom
I did hear that some songs are becoming faster. I wonder why?

Firaol
Kiliippiin har’aa, ‘You and Yours’ kan Raadiyoo BBC 4 irraa argameedha. Pirofeesara teeknooloojii muuziqaa kana caqasi. Sirboota dhiibbaa uumanirratti maal jedhaa?

Insert
I think that, you know, one of the things that’s driving this, there are a number of things. They’re all radio, they’re all singles designed for radio playlists. Radio playlists are extremely important factors in, you know, judging the success of a track and obviously do feed into the kind of commercial success of a track.

Phil
So, he mentions that radio playlists are important factors.

Firaol
A playlist tarreefama sirboota. And he says that radio playlists affect the commercial success of a song, right?

Tom
Correct! Commercial success refers to how successful something is commercially, or how much money it makes. The opposite is a commercial failure. With success we use ‘of’, so he’s talking about the commercial success of a track.

Firaol
‘A track’ jecha biroon sirbaa jechuudha. Ammas caqasi. Dhiibbaa sirboonni milkaa’ina daldalarratti qaban mala akkamiin ibauuf yaalee.  Gaalee ‘and obviously’ jedhu booda kan jiru caqasi.

Insert
Radio playlists are extremely important factors in judging the success of a track and obviously do feed into the kind of commercial success of a track.

Phil
He said feed into.

Firaol

To feed into something jechuun wanti tokko akka ta’uuf gumaachuu jechuudha. Just like our ideas help feed into making this programme, right?

Phil
Exactly! We could also use it in a more physical way. Rivers, for example.

Tom
Let’s listen to his sentence again. How does he pronounce ‘one of the’ in ‘one of the things’?

Insert
I think that, you know, one of the things that’s driving this…

Tom
In connected speech, he says ‘one of the’. Things, the noun, is stressed. Say it with me.

the
one of the
one of the things

So, playlists are one of the things making tracks commercially successful.

Firaol
Caqasuu itti fufi. Kan biraa maaltu sirbootarra dhiibbaawwan, influences akka gahan godhaa?

Insert
But then there’s the influence of streaming services like Spotify, where if, uh, if a track isn’t played for at least 30 seconds then it doesn’t register a play.
And if we don’t hear the vocals then we might not carry on listening? Is that the theory?
Absolutely, yeah. That’s the theory, is to get through, I guess get into the meat of the song to hear the lyrical content and get through to that first chorus.
 
Phil
He said streaming services.

Firaol
Streaming services, tajaajilawwan utuu walirraa hincitin taphachiisu. Kunneen maaliifii? Kan gaalee 'if a track’ booda jiru ammas caqasi.

Insert
But then there’s the influence of streaming services like Spotify, where if, uh, if a track isn’t played for at least 30 seconds then it doesn’t register a play.

Tom
It doesn’t register a play. This means that the streaming services only register that someone listened to a track if they listen for longer than 30 seconds!

Phil
And this determines the commercial success of the track!

Tom
So, the theory, or idea, is to present listeners with vocals and a chorus more quickly, as it will make them want to continue listening!

Firaol

Baay’ee gaarii! Chorus jechuun qaama sirbaa isa irradeddeebi jedhamuudha ykn sosiftuu jechuu dha.

Yeroon nuti qabnu dhumeera. Jechoonni har’aa, streaming, commercial success, playlist, feed into, chorus and lyrics turan. Waancaqasteef galatoomi.  Nagaatti!