When they've written many tracks? I mean most of the time the al ums end up about 12 tracks. I understand some unused songs aren't good enough but whycant the others make it?

Beyonce wrote 72 songs for 4 but only 16 are on sale.

Shakira wrote 60 songs for the fixations and only 20 made it in the end (10 per cd)

Why not just include more songs?

Time constraints.

Just because they wrote those many songs doesn't mean they recorded them all. Recording songs is expensive and if an artist/label/producers don't deem the songs strong enough, they won't waste their time or money recording and mixing them.

Oh, and if they have all the extra songs, a lot of the time the songs not included weren't complete, weren't good enough songs to be included, or didn't fit with the rest of the songs. Labels also don't want to put 20 songs on a CD selling for $12, too.

No idea.

It's the label's final decision at the end of the day.

Just because she recorded 72 songs dont mean they are actually GOOD

the songs that didnt make the cut probably are all garbage fillers

Yes.

and im pretty sure thats NOT what it means 0_o

Look no further than Xtina's album and Born This Way. Too many songs makes a project seem muddled and lacking direction, and often bog the good songs down with the **** ones

I'm just saying. It could be several reasons

Or maybe the other songs just didnt fit the theme of the album

who knows

Cohesiveness / quality >.

I read somewhere that it costs extra for every song past #10. Sounds like ******** but who knows.

Later, they decide to release them for free?
I think your idea makes sense, but they could perfectly add at least 5 more songs.

$$$ mostly. And it's the same reason films get edited down and you get deleted scenes and directors cuts of films. Some stuff is seen as filler/most people dont have the time to and listen to an hour long CD

Beyonce has 100s of songs that have not been released, yet some are on youtube and would make a great cuts for the era it was recorded in. Sometimes artists want to play with sounds, but in the end they might not feel it or YES the label knows what it wants

They probably get saved for re-releases, B-sides, future albums, other artists, or get scrapped altogether.

Yep like Kill the lights was recorded during blackout and released in circus and supposedly i wanna go and 3 were recorded at the same time so..

They are probably not happy with the result so they don't release them.

Probably for the sake of album coherency. More tracks are nice, but an album is supposed to be a coherent art piece, and too many tracks would muddle the message.