Why are there limited tracks on albums?

[SeasonOfTheWitch 3,789]

I’m going down ARTPOP memory and... for an album that had “over 100 tracks” written for it, it’s weird how it only has 1̶5̶ 14 tracks. It’s even weirder when I remember there was some discussion about whether MJH or Brooklyn Nights should be #12... why couldn’t they have both? Who puts a limit on the album tracks? Not just ARTPOP, but in other albums. 

[venusfly 17,879]

An album being too long is a turn-off for listeners, it's best to curate it down to the best tracks you made.

[LordEnigma 11,313]

A marketing thing. Just like how pop songs tend to be a certain length. Wish ARTPOP would have had it's second act put out - I feel like it would have been total slayage.

[SeasonOfTheWitch 3,789]

5 minutes ago, Venusfly said:

An album being too long is a turn-off for listeners, it's best to curate it down to the best tracks you made.

You’d think when you’re an established musician with a large enough fanbase you wouldn’t have to worry about that... plus not many people actually listen to albums in full anymore. 

[AndiGaga 5,118]

Its a body of work

With 20+ tracks there will be more quantity than quality

[venusfly 17,879]

1 minute ago, SeasonOfTheWitch said:

You’d think when you’re an established musician with a large enough fanbase you wouldn’t have to worry about that... plus not many people actually listen to albums in full anymore. 

fanbases don't mind longer track lists usually but its all about attracting new people, especially with streaming when everything is so immediate  personally if I click onto an album and it looks too long and I'm not dying to hear it then I'll move on 

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

Because out of all those there are only a handful of hit songs. Most of them are probably just fillers or songs that she lost her inspiration for like Princess Die for example.

[LaLa 18,569]

There is also a limit to how many songs physical media can actually hold. Vinyl, cassette tapes, CDs etc can't hold unlimited tracks.

[Benji 20,113]

ARTPOP could have worked as a really long album / mixtape

Generally though, there’s a self imposed limit because an artist can only explore a theme / sound for so long without it losing its cohesiveness or losing the interest of the listener.

[Illuminati 15,375]

Casual listeners don't like long albums also it wouldn't pay off to put that many songs on the album whereas the unused production and songs can be repurposed for other projects.
Despite you saying people don't listen to albums anymore, the goal still is to make them to listen.

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,439]

It depends also on the durations of the songs and the limit on media, but they could've done better with ARTPOP and Joanne. Why release songs in just a specific country, or why don't they release expanded versions like BTW had the 2CD version with some remixes... ARTPOP could've had at least 2 more songs but it was already a mess so why bother tbh... The album would have been better if it was released with the Swinefest versions + Brooklyn Nights and I Wanna Be With You, but i guess those were too deep for the album concept. I would've released the iTunes festival DVD separately and include a 2nd CD with those bsides. With Joanne, i expected a couple more new songs and the 2 mixtapes that had the Japanese edition. 

[SeasonOfTheWitch 3,789]

11 minutes ago, LaLa said:

There is also a limit to how many songs physical media can actually hold. Vinyl, cassette tapes, CDs etc can't hold unlimited tracks.

TFM (extended) is 93 minutes long...  Meanwhile ARTPOP is 55 minutes 

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,439]

2 minutes ago, SeasonOfTheWitch said:

TFM (extended) is 93 minutes long...  Meanwhile ARTPOP is 55 minutes 

But TFM is 2 CDs and making 1 instead of 2 is cheaper. They put the money on that deluxe 2CD version because Poker Face and Paparazzi were still hits around the world and they knew they would sell that edition. In Europe it was the only version sold for almost a year, we didn't get the EP until 2010

[Hoss 2,101]

not every song that on artist writes is recorded. out of the 100 songs gaga wrote she probably narrowed it down to 50 that she wanted to record, and then kept narrowing it down from there. she definitely didn’t record all 100 songs because that would have taken way too long 

[Smother Em Eh 6,824]

I wish Brooklyn Nights did make the album. It would have been 16 tracks (at the time) and it would have been great. 

Katys Prism has 16 tracks and was released a month before ARTPOP was. 

Anyways, it’s narrowed down to an Artists best tracks because long as hell Albums are a turn off.