The Decline of the Hidden Track

The Decline of the Hidden Track

 Hidden tracks are tracks that are hidden from,the track list of an album (usually by adding a silence after the final track). Recently the hidden track has all but disappeared from existence. Why have they disappeared? Here are some theories and stories.

 The most likely reason for their disappearance is the explosion of digital music. iTunes, and more recently Spotify, has a hardon for neat and easy to use interfaces which show each track by its name using as little data as possible (even if this means leaving areas of playable silence inside an albums track listing) usually results in the loss of the hidden track.

 A second theory that also stems from the Internet is the issue of recognition. Hidden tracks had their hayday before music from the Internet was popular. In a time were music can be downloaded legally, and illegally, in seconds; many musical artists need material to be recognised and attributed to them so hiding tracks in amongst silence is not efficient any more. 

 If the previous two theories didn't sell it, one could say that hidden tracks faded out of existence slowly as a result of "musical evolution". This aside, what did hidden tracks actually add to the music scene.

 The track I'll Be There For You by The Rembrandts was originally a hidden track on the first printings of their album LP, you may know that the track went on to be the theme song to American sitcom Friends.
 Another noteworthy hidden track is Slipknot's audio snippet after the track Scissors from their self titled album. The snippet is of the band reaction to a dirty porno, the snippet them leads into the hidden track Eeyore.