December 2017 LSAT Section 1 Question 13

Songwriters get much of the money they earn from their songs from radio airplay. A hit song is played thousands of ti...

christina.agramonte on January 4, 2022

Why is E incorrect?

E states: "Some songwriters earn money solely from the radio airplay of their songs." The passage states: "Writers of hit songs are often asked to write songs for movie sound tracks, but they sometimes decline." So if some of these songwriters decline to write songs for movie soundtracks, wouldn't it be true that at least some songwriters earn money only from radio airplay? The passage doesn't offer any other ways in which songwriters earn money so I don't understand why E is wrong.

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Jordan-Schlinger on January 13, 2022

Hey Christina!

So E is a very deceptive answer. The actual paragraph says that "Songwriters get much of the money they earn from their songs from radio airplay." However Answer E says some earn SOLELY from the radio airplay. We don't have enough info to say that- just that it makes up much (that is to say, some) of their income. Even if they don't do movies they could also earn income from, say, records, CDs, iTunes, etc. We don't know- it wasn't in the prompt- but by the answer saying solely (equivalent to saying all their income comes from the radio as opposed to much, that is some, of their income) it is excluding any and all other possibilities. We can only say that those artists don't make money from movies.

C on the other hand is an extremely weak, and therefore good, answer. We know that at least SOME of the songs written for movies become hits. And hits=played thousands of times on the radio airwaves. Therefore some songs written for movies must be played thousands of times over the radio if the above two statements are true.

I hope this helps, if not please don't hesitate to ask for clarification on any points that didn't!

Thanks,

Jordan