While listening to a piece of music, we perceive each tone as followed by the next. In this succession of tones, we recognise a melody consisting of tones with varying pitches. A single tone may linger before the subsequent tone follows it after a brief pause, with each tone differing in duration, thereby creating rhythm. We also recognise certain temporal parts of music as repeating refrains, whereas other parts occur only once. Hence, the perceptual representation of music comprises several temporal properties and relations: the succession of tones, the duration of each tone, the interval between tones, the repetition of tones or phrases, and possibly more.

Among these temporal properties and relations, philosophers often prioritise the succession of tones when explaining auditory experience, overlooking the role of other temporal properties and relations. In this paper, I critically examine this widespread view regarding Ian Phillips’ Non Standard Memory approach and Wanja Wiese’s Hierarchical Trajectory Estimation Model, corresponding to two branches of the specious present theory, extensionalism and retentionalism. Particularly, I highlight the limitations of these succession-based approaches in adequately characterising the experience of time in audition.