LSAT 149 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q13

LR Question 13 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Songwriters get much of the money they earn from…

QUESTION TYPE: Must be True

FACTS:

1. Hit songs make money per play, and make lots of money.
2. Only a small percentage of songs become hits.
3. Hit songs are played thousands of times on the radio.
4. Hit song writers prefer not to write songs for movies. They get an upfront payment for these.
5. Movie songs often become hits.

ANALYSIS: The right is much simple. It combines statements #3 and #5 above. I somehow missed statement #5 when I first read this, or didn’t give it proper emphasis. The LSAT kind of stuck it in the middle of the final sentence, which has four separate clauses separated by commas! That’s a sentence written to mislead.

You might have prephrased this as “hit songwriters prefer continuing payments and/or the continuing payments for hits are more than upfront payments for movie songs”. I had this prephrase myself.

This not only wasn’t the answer; it led to a trap answer. I didn’t pick the trap, but I almost did. I mention this to say that I’ve been noticing this as a trend more and more. It’s like LSAC looks into our heads, sees what someone might predict, and lays a trap for it.

So watch out. Prephrasing is still useful, but you have to read all the answers and not get stuck on a prephrase. Especially on questions 11-24, which are harder.

___________

1. This doesn’t follow. Artists get money whenever their song is played on the radio. And radio plays more than just hits: song some are played a small amount then abandoned.
2. “All” is a big word. It means 100%. The stimulus doesn’t say this. It only says writers of hit songs often are asked to write movie soundtracks. This implies that other people may also write movie soundtracks.
3. CORRECT. The stimulus says hits are played thousands of times on the radio, and that movie songs often become hits. This has to be true.
4. I almost picked this, as I had prephrased something like it. But, this answer talks about “songwriters”, whereas the stimulus only talked about “hit songwriters asked to write for movies”, a much smaller group. Further, the stimulus only says that “some” hit songwriters decline. We have no grounds for concluding most do. “Sometimes” can refer to a very small number.
    
   So the argument lets us make a conclusion about a very tiny group (“hit songwriters who decline movie deals”), but this answer makes a conclusion about a much larger group (“most songwriters of any kind”). We have no evidence for that.
5. The first line says songwriters earn much of their money from songs. But that doesn’t mean any writers earn 100% of their income. That’s a very large percentage. It would mean they don’t sell any records, no concerts, no cds, they never do ads, they never earn royalties, etc. What sort of “radio licensing purist” would purposefully avoid all other income?

Recap: The question begins with “Songwriters get much of the money they earn from”. It is a Must be True question. Learn how to master LSAT MBT questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.