We focused this week primarily on the use of Digital Audio Software. Personally, I have never interacted in any way with DAW and thought that the programs used to create music where themselves very confusing, expensive, and required more processing power than was needed. What I feel surprised me the most was the ability to create songs from pre-recorded loops of music. I was under the impression that DAW was mostly fine-tuning instruments as well as creating more simple beats, with more complex, computer generated music (such as Techno) being produces by a combination of physical instruments and music making programs which were unique to the music industry. In all honesty I am blown away by both the ease in which the program can be used, as well as by the sheer number of instruments and sound tracks available for use.

However, one thing that instantly popped up in my mind was the usefulness of these pre-recorded tracks in popular music. While apple has given a license for artists to use these tracks, at what point does it become repetitive? Given that while there are many different tracks in Garageband, it is not inconceivable that more than one artist could use the same track to create a piece of music. And then, once each artist realizes that the others song is very similar due to the use of the same track, they end up in court. At what point do sampling laws apply, and who owns the royalty to that particular melody since the original melody was owned and then released by apple? I feel that as these programs become more popular, we will begin to see more legal battles on the subject.