It seems that Spotify doesn’t accurately count plays for tracks under 30 seconds. I had a look through some of the albums I know of with short tracks and here’s what I found:

• Humanz - Gorillaz / Most popular track: 214m plays vs 11 second interlude: 1,185 plays
• Absolution - Muse / Most popular track: 259m plays vs 22 second intro: 32,174 plays
• California - Blink 182 / Most popular track: 158m plays vs 16 second track: 42,616 plays
• 3 Feet High and Rising - De La Soul / Most popular track: 12m plays vs 17 second track: 1,117 plays
• The Eminem Show - Eminem / Most popular track: 1.9b plays vs 22 second track: 42,050 plays

In fact I found the MGMT album 11​•​11​•​11 has a 26 second long track with no reported plays.

So while it’s probably true that people are listening to fewer full albums than they used to in the days of vinyl or CD, it seems more likely to do with Spotify only paying royalties on tracks over 30 seconds and the discussion surrounding that.