The creation and planning that goes into making an album is no easy job at all.
Once you have your music ready, you now have to create a track list that is well coordinated.
Then you have to choose the number of songs that will actually make it to the final cut of your album.
One of the frequent questions I usually get from indie musicians is:
“Is 8 songs too short for an album?”.
Generally, 8 songs or more is considered a good number for an album. Projects that have less than 8 songs are usually considered EP’s. So, having 8 songs as the total number of songs on your album is perfectly fine.
EPs usually are made of very few songs that are meant to be extended play for the album released.
Most of the times artist’s will put out EPs first as a way to gather hype for their albums.
Which is a great tactic to push for some sales on your album. This is usually referred to as bundling.
The artist will often times give out an EP for free and use some of the songs on the EP to bring awareness to their new album coming up.
This is common in the music industry.
Advantages of a short album
There are various advantages of having a short album that only consists of 8 to 10 songs therefore let’s look into these.
Easy to contain songs
One of the advantages of releasing a short album with only a few songs maybe 8 to 10 is that you can easily contain and keep track of them.
Artist’s usually create more than enough songs for albums which means they can pick the best of all those songs and make a short album.
This can in turn ensure that the album be of good quality.
Because the songs selected for the album are only a few being picked from a lot material.
Which is why you’ll find most artist’s that have short albums, generally have great songs and hence these short projects are usually deemed great to listen to and will have higher chart ratings.
So don’t underestimate the power of creating a short concise album with only the best of your records.
Easy to Create
Let’s face it, an album can be overwhelming to create especially if you’re working with with record label.
Artist’s in such deals will usually work under a schedule designed to meet a specific deadline.
A short album can allow you as the artist to spend less energy in making a lot of songs.
Which can in turn save up some time for you which can be used to create more music or simply perfect your already existing songs.
As an artist, having enough time to work on records is very important because as you well know, creativity cannot be forced.
Therefore working on a few songs for an album can be very helpful in ensuring that you have enough time to spend on any record.
Leaves fans wanting more
One of the very important things that you have to understand as an artist is that your fans are essentially your customers therefore its important to develop a good marketing plan.
I say that to say this, a short album will leave your fans wanting more music which puts you in a unique position because you can be guaranteed that your next release will be sought after.
Therefore you can use various strategies to plan and sequence your releases in a way that can help you make sales that trickle down from one album to the next.
Easy appeal to short attention span
The Internet has pretty much made information easily accessible with a few clicks in the right places.
Platforms like Tiktok that meant for users to only upload short videos have made peoples attention span pretty much short.
Therefore a short album can be a great way to make sure your album gets played from start to finish due to the fact it doesn’t have an overwhelmingly long track list.
An 8-10 track album is easy to digest and play over and over which is a good thing because people are primarily streaming music which means you can make more money with people repeatedly streaming your records.
Less music videos to do
The Downside to making a long album is that you’ll have to do alot more music videos as a means to promote it.
If say you have a 20 track album, you’ll at least need to do 5 music videos to be able properly market your album.
This can be costly especially for indie artists which is why a short album can work in your favor because you can simply do 1 or 2 music videos to promote it and you’ll be alright.
Advantages of a long album
Discussed above are various benefits of creating a short album. This section of the post will however discuss the benefits of creating a longer album with more music.
I share both upside to releasing a short album as well as a longer album not to say one is better than the other but to say you can plan effectively to ensure that you use both shorter and longer albums to guarantee more sales and streams for your music.
With that said let’s get into the benefits of creating a longer album.
Delivers a lot of value
The good part of releasing an album with a lot of tracks is that, it delivers a lot of value to your fans.
A longer album will make it worth your fans while to purchase because they’ll be getting value for their money.
Gives fans a longer experience
Longer albums can be a great way to push a narrative as an artist. This can help you give your fans a well themed album that isn’t too short.
This in turn gives them a longer listening experience that can allow them to absorb your album the right way.
Easy to market
An album with a lot of music is an instant beacon of value which means it can market itself.
People will be open to buying a longer album even without a lot of marketing which can be great.
Releasing a short album first as a teaser and then following up with a longer album can be a great way for your music to be easily purchased.
Wide array of Analytics
Having more songs on your album is great because it gives you a wide array of Analytics that can help your plan your future releases more precisely.
This can guarantee better future business which is a great assurance and motivation to make more music.
