The Smiths · The Smiths

What Difference Does It Make?

What Difference Does It Make? is in B minor at 163.1 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

163 BPM · Vivacemedian of 175 analyses · 163–163.2 across the middle eight tenths
Key
B minor2 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
68%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
175people who ran the extractor
One beat
367.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
447.7Hz · +30 cents from A 440
Dynamics
2.6dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.96Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.358Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

175 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 68% — put it in B minor, a key signature of 2 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 175 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 163.1 BPM one beat lasts 367.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 92 ms and a dotted eighth 275.9 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 81.6 BPM, counted twice as fast 326.2. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 447.7 Hz, which is 30 cents above concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 2.6 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.96 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in B minor; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with B minor

Each of these differs from B minor by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 163 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41471.50.68
Half note2735.71.36
Dotted quarter1.5551.81.81
Quarter note (one beat)1367.92.72
Quarter triplet0.667245.24.08
Dotted eighth0.75275.93.62
Eighth note0.5183.95.44
Eighth triplet0.333122.68.15
Dotted sixteenth0.3751387.25
Sixteenth note0.259210.87
Sixteenth triplet0.16761.316.31
Thirty-second note0.1254621.75

Half time 81.6 BPM · double time 326.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (367.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Don’t Let Me Be MisunderstoodNina SimoneB minor162BPM
  2. Jigsaw Falling Into PlaceRadioheadB minor164BPM
  3. SabrosaBeastie BoysB minor162BPM
  4. Come Rain or Come ShineFrank SinatraB minor165BPM
  5. Come Out and PlayOffspringB minor156BPM
  6. Going UnderEvanescenceB minor172BPM
  7. When the Sun Goes DownArctic MonkeysB minor172BPM
  8. WHEN I WAS OLDERBillie EilishB minor150BPM
  9. MantraToolB minor150BPM
  10. Calm Like a BombRage Against the MachineB minor149BPM

Recordings in B minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 163 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in B minorAll songs at 163 BPMThe Smiths

MusicBrainz collapses 90 recording ids into this one. Recording id ca51dca9-58e1-4a94-9ad9-fed58af17c13.