In music, a radio edit or radio mix is a modification, typically truncated or censored, intended to make a song more suitable for airplay. It may be censored for profanity, vulgarities, or subject matter; or adjusted for length, instrumentation, or form. Radio edits may also be used for commercial single versions, which may be denoted as the 7" version (as opposed to the 12" version which are extended versions of a song).
Not all "radio edit" tracks are played on the radio.
Time constraints
Radio edits often shorten a long song to make it more commercially viable for radio stations. The normal length for songs played on the radio is between three and five minutes. The amount of cut content differs, ranging from a few seconds to effectively half of a song being cut. It is common for radio edits to have shortened intros and/or outros. In the intro, any kind of musical buildup is removed, or, if there is no such build-up, an extensive intro is often halved. In the outro, occasionally, the song will simply fade out earlier, common on tracks with long instrumental endings, or, if it doesn't fade out, a part before the ending will be cut out or in some cases, a fade out was added in the radio edit. It is also frequent that a chorus is repeated less often towards the end. If necessary, many radio edits will also edit out verses, choruses, bridges, or interludes in between.
An example is the radio edit of "'Heroes'" (1977) by David Bowie, which fades in shortly before the beginning of the third verse and fades out shortly before the vocal vamping at the end of the song. Another example is B.o.B's song, "Nothin' On You" (2009) featuring Bruno Mars, whose radio edit skips the first five seconds and starts with the sixth second in which Bruno Mars starts singing the first chorus. The second half of the first chorus is sometimes skipped, along with the last 24 seconds which is the normal fadeout part in which B.o.B says, "Yeah, and that's just how we do it/And Ima let this ride/B.o.B and Bruno Mars", and the radio edit ends with the fourth and last chorus with an earlier fade-out. Another example is on Robbie Williams' track "No Regrets", where it removes the first part of the song and the instrumental break after the first verse. A third example would be the song, "The Man" (2014) by Aloe Blacc, in which the radio edit skips the "I'm the man/Go ahead & tell everybody/What I'm saying ya all" part and the first ten seconds. Also, the third chorus of the song is shortened. Another example of this case is Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" (2013), where the radio edit cuts the entire "You are the love of my life" part. Another example would be Juvenile's "Back That Thang Up" (1999) where Lil' Wayne's outro is faded out in the "wobble de wop" part. Another example for this case would be Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" (1998), whose radio edit has a shortened intro, the first half of the third verse is omitted, and final chorus is shortened. A seventh example would be the song, "I Believe I Can Fly" (1996) by R. Kelly, in which the radio edit cuts the entire intro.
Some songs will be remixed heavily and feature different arrangements than the original longer versions, occasionally even being completely different recordings. A popular example of this is "Revolution" (1968) by the Beatles which is a completely different recording from the version which appears on The White Album. Another example is Miley Cyrus's "Adore You" (2013), whose original album version is a slow, quiet version clocking in at 4 minutes 37 seconds; the radio edit is a completely different version which is a remix done by Cedric Gervais running at 3 minutes, 36 seconds. Likewise, an attempt at a radio edit for Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute epic "Alice's Restaurant" (1967) scrapped the entire monologue that served as the main base of the song's popularity and instead was a 4-minute, three-verse rock and roll song. This also became more prevalent with the rise of the 12" record, as artists like New Order started making songs specifically for the format. Many of the 7" mixes aimed for pop radio airplay of their songs feature very different arrangements, such as "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1986), or even a completely different recording, such as "Temptation" (1982).