Thread:Stezie95/@comment-26843868-20151113135320/@comment-26843868-20151114110028

You're not barging in. If we wanted privacy we'd chat somewhere else.

Performance is probably the biggest reason (for most people at least). Most of these seem to be transcribed from books full of sheet music that were published in Japan (the Official Band Yarouyo series). It's actually a pretty big market, because who wou;dn't want to play the music they like?

Of course, there are other ways to use the files too. You can use them as reference material (or I guess even just copy/paste stuff) if you want to rearrange a track. Heck, just change the lead guitar into a nice solid synth (and then change it back when you realise that's a terrible idea).

You could just mute everything except the bass on that one solo you really like (I mean, it wouldn't be quite the same as the original, but usually it'll be reasonably okay sounding).

I guess if you wanted to you could also use them as a backing track for a cover (because you can mute your instrument so it doesn't play), but I'd probably use the original version for that.

Anyway, the possibilities are endless because the files provide the data needed to (almost) fully recreate the musical performance aspect of the track (which is actually a fair bit more than you'll often find printed on a score too).