Why do many pop recordings fade out at the end? The artists have endings for the songs that they perform in concert. Why not have real endings on the recordings? When did this start anyway?
This thread
When and why did the tradition of popular songs “fading out” at the end originate?
has some good speculations, but probably not a definitive answer.
Endings are hard, and this is nothing new. Listen to a Mozart symphony some time; he spends the last five minutes of the piece hopping up and down on the final chord, saying “I’m done, I’m done, I’m really, really, really done…”
Maybe it’s just becuase you mentioned Mozart, but now I’m totally singing these words to the opening melody of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Maybe that’s what you intended. If not, try it; you’ll hate me in five minutes. 
In some cases, the artists probably want one song to flow into the next. That’s not the majority answer I’m sure, but it’s one reason. Once in a while you find an artist who’s willing to let a song fade out live, too.
I curse you.
[Christine Lavin] What was I thinking? How am I going to end this song? I’ll just do a fade out. That’s what they do when they can’t figure out how to end the song. They just fade out. YOU thought uit was an artistic choice, but it isn’t They just don’t know how to end it. Except for Spanky and Our Gang’s “Trying to get to know You”. THAT was an artistic choice. But all the others just can’t figure out what to do. What are you doing, still listening? You must have ears like a dog![/Christine Lavin]
– from “What Was I Thinking?” by Christine Lavin
You, too, huh? (There’s one too many 'really’s in the quote to really scan to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, but it rather naturally goes byebye once ‘I’m done, I’m done’ slips into the tune.)
I have no idea.
I think that, as Ethilrist said, it’s hard to give a song an ending. I think if you are playing a really cool chorus or some kind of outro at the end of a song, you don’t want to have that suddenly end because it doesn’t sound right or it sounds a bit contrived or something.
I also like the idea that there’s really no end to the song, just that last bit going on and on. Having played in bands and done a few recordings here and there, that is the thing I like about fade-outs - the fact that you haven’t heard the song end and so, in a way, it hasn’t ended and it just goes on indefinitely.
I think all pop songs should now buck this trend and end with “shave and a haircut… two bits.”
I’m going to suggest that it might be at least partly because a lot of them are not recorded as whole songs - theyre recorded in parts in a studio, then edited into a song - I suppose there’s no reason why an ending couldn’t also be recorded when it’s done this way, but for many things assembled from parts, finishing neatly and with flourish is more difficult than starting or doing the main meat of it.
Films are constructed this way, and most of the time they manage to end fairly concisely.
As an answer to the OP: recording has been distinct from performance for decades now, and that means the language of the studio can be different to the language of the performance. There is no reason why songs should not fade out at the end; the fade out is just one more technique at the producer/writer/arranger/performer’s disposal.
This particular technique may be favored because of the importance a good hook has in popular music. Fading out on a central musical motif allows that motif to be extrapolated for eternity in the audience’s mind. Imposing an arbitrary end on a hook changes the nature of the hook.
The best is Springsteen’s “I Don’t Wanna Fade Away” which ends with him repeating that, fading out. 
You did see Return of the King, though?
OK, I said for many things constructed from parts, not all. Perhaps what I should have said is …for many things assembled from multiple, similar parts…
Films have endings because they are scripted and storyboarded from start to finish before a single frame of film is exposed.
Songs are typically constructed in a different way; verses are written, choruses and bridges are written, but there’s cyclic repetition either in just the music and metre or those things and the lyrics as well.
Endings may be explicitly written, but sometimes they’re ad-libbed repetition of a couple of lines picked out of a chorus or verse - sometimes this can be brought to a close neatly, other times, it just goes on and on into the fade.
And change ‘songs are typically…’ to ‘songs may be…’, then there will be no need for a nitpick over that.
I end all of my songs with “cha cha cha”.
Dagnabbit, marketing people. Because of recent commercials, this runs in my head as “cha cha cha Charmin!” :mad: