How many songs are right for an album?

This always makes for interesting conversation, if you ask me. I've worked with a decent amount of acts throughout my lifetime in the Indie world. Many albums, many EPs, singles what have you. One question that repeatedly suffaces, "How many songs should be on the project?" When I first began, I would have probably answered that question with, "Well if it's an album 10-12. If it's an EP 3-5. Single 1-2...." so on and so forth. *smacks head* Today, my answer is much different. If I were to be asked that question today. I would probably reply with, "Well how many are good?" "How many fit what you are trying to accomplish?" "Do they work together?"

Another thing to consider. The law of averages. Let's do some quick math....

Let's say you record 10 songs for your upcoming 10 song album. What's the probability that one of those songs will reallly hit it big? The answer... no one knows, BUT we can probably say with confidence that it's not 10/10. Let's say for the sake of argument that it's 1/10, which is seriously more likely and also the worse possible scenario. If this is the case, are you really doing yourself justice by only recording 10 songs?

Think about it....

Here's a quick word of advice. Take your time. Record, Record RECORD. Be patient. Most importantly, stop hitting the studio as if you are the next coming of John Lennon, because most likely you aren't.... at least not yet. Never go into creating an album with a set amount of tracks in mind. Just create. Create your ass off. Increase your odds! Record over 20 for a EP. Record over 50 for an album! Sound crazy? Not really... just ask T.I.

www.billboard.com T.I. Cover Story

The day before he was scheduled to turn in "Trouble Man," his last album under his current deal with Atlantic, T.I. spoke to Billboard about where he's been and where he's going, and how he hopes to get there from here.

You're turning in the album tomorrow. How does it feel?
[laughs] It's a blessing. It's a blessing to be at this stage in my career and continue to have, I guess, enough relevance to have an anticipated project. I'm real proud of it -- I just hope everybody else will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

You recorded more than 100 songs for the album, right?
Yeah, it was like 126, 127, something like that.

Do you usually do that much work going into an album?
This might be the first time we cracked 100. Usually it's like 50 or 60. There's always an abundance of material.

Think about it!

I-M