Mathematically, what is the total number of possible songs there could be?
Posted by: Consciousmess on 27 February 2009
Hi,
I've just looked through the variety of albums bought by people on the various threads and I find the number amazing - as I know the number of ‘likeable’ songs could be multiplied by thousands, perhaps 10s of thousands.
This leads me to ask this question - based on the following assumptions...
1) Songs must be 5 minutes long
2) There are 8 notes in an octave
3) The human can hear frequencies between 20Hz and 20kHz
4) There are only a finite number of different voices (i.e. the voice is material and can only sing at certain frequencies with finite timbre variation)
5) Volume must be between a lowest and highest point.
6) Must follow some regular beat or at least follow some sort of rhythm.
...what number would you give to be an estimate of the total possible number of songs that could be written?
Obviously it cannot be infinity, so what numbers do you reckon?
Regards,
Jon
PS Maybe I’ve got too much time on my hands……
I've just looked through the variety of albums bought by people on the various threads and I find the number amazing - as I know the number of ‘likeable’ songs could be multiplied by thousands, perhaps 10s of thousands.
This leads me to ask this question - based on the following assumptions...
1) Songs must be 5 minutes long
2) There are 8 notes in an octave
3) The human can hear frequencies between 20Hz and 20kHz
4) There are only a finite number of different voices (i.e. the voice is material and can only sing at certain frequencies with finite timbre variation)
5) Volume must be between a lowest and highest point.
6) Must follow some regular beat or at least follow some sort of rhythm.
...what number would you give to be an estimate of the total possible number of songs that could be written?
Obviously it cannot be infinity, so what numbers do you reckon?
Regards,
Jon
PS Maybe I’ve got too much time on my hands……
quote:Originally posted by Consciousmess:
Thanks, Mike, I totally understand!!!
i tried to e-mail this guy to get a number, but he doesn't accept unsolicited e-mails.
imagine an evening with him, where we take a shot of stoley's everytime he says something you don't quite understand.
shit-faced in no time!