Source

Annotation

Thoughts/Connectio
ns

Vsauce. "Will We Ever

Run Out of New Music?"
YouTube. YouTube, 20
Nov. 2012. Web. 18
Sept. 2016.

Vsauce, real name

Michael Stevens, is a
YouTube personality
who posts intriguing
academic videos.
Stevens gathers his
information from
credible Wikipedia
sources and academic
papers. Vsauce begins
the video with posing
the question, Will We
Ever Run Out of New
Music? He then
explains that there are
a few methods of
looking at the question
and different formulas
for obtaining the
ultimate answer of no.
Stevens entire
explanation is very
mathematical, and one
explains the concepts
behind finding the
answer as follows.
Musical data is stored
in bits as either a 0 or
1. There are
211,000,000 bits on a
CD of a five minute
song. Therefore, there
211,000,000
are 2
million

I think its amazing that

something like the
question of Will We
Ever Run Out of New
Music? is
mathematically
calculable. I was very
impressed with
Stevens sources and
explanations of his
answers, but was a
little lost on the musical
terminology that he
used. This is surely my
fault though, as I dont
know much about the
musical scale. He
makes a reference to a
very amusing video
that I ended up
watching afterwards
that demonstrates how
many popular songs
use the same musical
chords. After answering
the basic question of
how math says that
yes, we will run out
music, but no, we wont
in reality, Stevens
expands to explain that
when music software
compresses songs,
there is a certain scale
that can predict how
well received a song
will be based off of the
ease to compress the
song. I thought it was
very professional of

possibilities of songs.
This number seems like
a lot, but it is important
to note that it is finite.
Vsauce then pulls on
research from online
academia websites to

"Could We Ever Run out

of Songs?"
Wonderpedia. N.p., n.d.
Web. 19 Sept. 2016

Bernstein, Leonard. The

Infinite Variety of
Music. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1966.
Print.

eventually narrow the

possible number of
musical combinations
to 79 billion
possibilities. The
parameters used to
narrow the original
number were the three
common lengths of
notes, eight notes, and
twelve intervals.
The article is relatively
short, but makes its
point clear in a laconic
manner. Wonderpedia
notes that in just one
octave, there are 123
decillion possible
combinations of music.
This is twice as long as
how many seconds the
universe has been
around. Similar to the
video that Vsauce
mentioned, though, a
lot of songs share
similar melodies and
patterns. The answer to
the question of us ever
running out of songs
once again is a finite
number, but is
unrealistically
approachable.
Leonard Bernstein is a
famous American
musical composer,
establishing him as a
credible source to
discuss music. In an
excerpt of this book,
Bernstein discusses the
question of us running

Stevens to explain
more about the topic,
even though it did not
relate directly to it,
after telling us the
initial answer.

I was really fascinated

by the comparisons
they made between the
song possibilities and
the time the universe
has existed. Saying
really big numbers is
kind of meaningless
when we have nothing
to put them in
perspective to, so I was
glad that the article did
so.

The math of these

equations can get kind
of confusing, not to
mention their
terminology. Bernstein
is a renowned
composer, so anyone
reading his book is
expected to have a

Freke, Oli. "How Many

Melodies Are There?"
Plus.maths.org. N.p., 6
Nov. 2014. Web. 19
Sept. 2016.

out of new music. He

creates his answer of
no by calling on the
help of a
mathematician friend
who derives a formula
that produces a
number bordering 1
billion. His formula took
into account the basic
12 notes and the 88
pitches of piano. This
large, but finite
number, once again
proves that there is an
unrealistic limit.
Bernstein then
describes that melodies
can have the same
note pattern but sound
different because of
factors such as tempo
and length.
Oli Freke is a Londonbased musical
composer who has
seen Billboard success,
indicative of his
musical knowledge. He
is a credible source to
discuss the topic of the
total number of
melodies possible.
Freke describes that in
his scenario to figure
out the total number he
will be placing
parameters. These are:
single stream of notes
and not chords, all
melodies will be in the
C to C octave, and the

rudimentary knowledge
of music notes and
their properties. I dont.
I like how Bernstein
gives examples of his
explanation of similar
melodies sounding
different with songs
that I knew. This made
the reading more
relatable.

Just as the past sources

have defined there is a
finite but unrealistic
answer to how many
musical possibilities
there are, Oli Freke also
builds on this claim. I
was impressed that
someone who doesnt
have a mathematical
background found the
initiative to create such
innovative formulas to
solve the question.
Freke breaks down his
answer in an organized
way, which is helpful to
someone like me who
does not have a

13 notes of the
chromatic scale can be
used in the octave.
Freke then begins
calculating the answer
by starting with how
many melodies can be
made out of two note
melodies, then three,
then four to infinity. He
does well to exclude
repeats, and finds 25
two note melodies, 469
three note melodies,
and then finally creates
a rather large formula
to deduce the rest of
the possibilities. Freke
finds that a simple 10
note melody has 75
billion possibilities. He
then creates a formula
that accounts for
rhythm, and creates a
formula that produces
an answer of there
19
being 8.25 x 10
melodies for a 10 note
melody. This answer is
finite, but unrealistic to
achieve.

musical background.