I have found this discussion very interesting and have thought about it allot. My 2 cents. I will say that one of the things I value about this forum is the user base has passion for the product.

User Base - Younger musicians today are faced with so many choices. I can remember when I started I had Cakewalk DOS and could make 3 note music and thought that was great. When BIAB came along I was amazed as I am with the DAW market and available features today. I work in a company that is tech based and whether we like it or not have heard the 20 to 30 crowd make the comment that if the interface doesn't meet their modern ideas they feel it is sketchy and not a real product. User interfaces matter to them.

DAW Development - If I was PG I probably wouldn't pursue building out a DAW. It is a saturated market with some big players. When a company like BandLab gives Cakewalk away for free and it competes with many of the other players you have to have something really special to have any margin in the product. That is why the plug-in makes so much sense as a path forward. BIAB really excels in high quality arrangement and production of songs whether covers or originals. That is their value add to the marketplace in my opinion.

Music Today - It does seem like on Social Media EDM is king. Try looking up music apps on Youtube. A large percentage of the folks are using Ableton because of it's ability to use loops, clips and other tools that EDM folks use. It's midi implementation is just nuts. In the Worship scene for churches Worship leaders use it because the can control the music, the lights the words for presentation, etc. all from one application. What I find interesting however it that this year at our Christmas party we had a DJ. The young people didn't want to hear EDM, instead they like to stand around in a group and dance and sing songs from the 70's and 80's. This generation has the most eclectic and diverse taste in music I can remember in my brief time on earth. (Ok over half a century but in the scope of eternity a short time)

Path Forward - I would like to see focus on the Plug-in and continued feature development to allow even more integration with the major DAW's I find Cubase especially interesting because they already have a chord track that allows you to create accompaniment though not nearly as easily as BIAB. I don't think I have seen anyone say this but I would like to see PG develop an iOS app that could be used as at least a starting place and then import into BIAB. I can't tell you how many times on an airplane or in a hotel I wished I could pull up a simple version of BIAB on my iPad and work on a song. They already have the MAC version of BIAB so I have to believe the have the capability. Android would be nice too, however that doesn't seem to be as mature of a music platform.

I guess only PG really knows what their strategic plans are for the future. I just hope that Peter has a good transition plan for the company when it is his time to pass the torch. There is still a lot of potential in the concept and software.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Terry

TerryB

Windows 10, Dell 8700 XPS i7, 12MB Ram.