# Song Length, time?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/song-length-time/2575>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [June 17, 2024, 11:45pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/song-length-time/2575 "2024-06-17T23:45:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phlomsx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e56c9b/32.png) [@phlomsx](https://discourse.beets.io/u/phlomsx)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 11:45pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/song-length-time/2575/1 "2024-06-17T23:45:11Z")

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Have figured out the very basics of beets, yay!

I don’t really understand the song length bit.

For a lot of tunes it wants to change the song length, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

How do I manage this? If I import a song and it loses a few seconds, will a media player just stop playing the track early?

Can I ask beets to check this stuff?

Apologies, but searching for ‘time’ type stuff isn’t easy.

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**Author:** ![jackwilsdon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/jackwilsdon/32/10_2.png) [@jackwilsdon](https://discourse.beets.io/u/jackwilsdon)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 12:02am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/song-length-time/2575/2 "2024-06-18T00:02:42Z")

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If you’re talking about the durations shown during import, beets isn’t actually modifying the length of your tracks - the fact that it’s showing the time means that the duration of your local track doesn’t match the duration on MusicBrainz (possibly due to a bad copy, wrong match or bad data on MusicBrainz).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phlomsx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e56c9b/32.png) [@phlomsx](https://discourse.beets.io/u/phlomsx)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/song-length-time/2575/3 "2024-06-18T00:26:06Z")

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thanks, good to know