How to typeset time duration of a song?

I need to reference several times (eg. 2:30 - two minutes and thirty seconds) from a song for an assignment I am working on.

I have thought of using $2$:$30$ because I thought using 2:30 would be incorrect.

Is my method of typesetting song duration correct or is there some other method that is?

-
Adding the $will set it in math font, rather than text font. In many cases, they will be the same font. For music, where math and equations seems distant from the application, I would think 2:30 would suffice (without the dollars). – Steven B. Segletes Jun 25 '14 at 19:24 @StevenB.Segletes, I see. So any set of numbers that are not related to mathematics not need be set in the mathematics font? – user133987 Jun 25 '14 at 19:28 That's correct. When in math mode, other things will apply, like italic variables and extra space inserted around math operators, as in a+b versus$a+b\$. But in your case, none of that is relevant. –  Steven B. Segletes Jun 25 '14 at 19:30
Thank you, this helps a lot with other LaTeX projects! –  user133987 Jun 25 '14 at 19:32

2:30 will be incorrect, because of a space added between : and 30. I suggest a macro with a syntax close to what one writes: it takes 2:30 or even 2: 30 or 2 : 30 as an argument and will print something like Duration 2:30 and a correct spacing (a thin space on both sides of the colon). It requires the etoolbox and xparse packages.

In addition, if the time is, say 3:00, you just have to type 3, the 00 will be added. If the length is less than 1 minute, you just type :45, say.

I didn't implement the case of ragas, for which the length can be more than 1 h, but it would be easy to do :)

Here is an example with and without the macro:

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{cabin}
\usepackage{etoolbox, xparse}

\def\lgthname{Duration}
\DeclareDocumentCommand \lgth%
{ >{\SplitArgument {1}{:}} m }
{\lgthaux#1}
\NewDocumentCommand{\lgthaux}{mm}