Hi Tobin,

Thanks for your interest and for your question.

My strong recommendation would be that Austin Hull from Make Pop Music should be your first port of call. I have posted several of his Youtube instructional videos earlier in this thread. I suggest you watch them, and the others on his site, before you approach him. You will see that he is extremely adept at deconstructing the various sub-genres of pop music and developing songs in that style. He is very busy producing pop for his clients 'in the style of...' and creating his instructional videos. He also makes and sells sounds, presets, MIDI packs and other songwriting tools.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvARrwO4x0VInVZr4pQRB2A

Austin could be a one-stop-shop for PG's first contemporary pop multistyles set, covering several sub-genres.

The really exciting thing would be a collaboration with him that would enable the full range of BIAB's features to be used in the service of contemporary pop songwriters (and maybe even develop some new features along the way). Utility tracks, loops, shots, holds, transitions, proper pop-style harmony vocals in commonly-used vowels & phrases that have been processed through Austin's stunningly effective custom FX chain...

If you commissioned Austin to create a set of multistyles based on the songs in my list, each with a full song demo to show off the style properly - I would be BREAKING YOUR DOOR DOWN to buy it!

But if you were to limit it to standard 5 instrument styles, I think that would be a missed opportunity. This is a chance for PG to think big and reach a whole new market (if you do it properly).

I suggest you also commission Austin to make some instructional videos for the pop multistyles set and to introduce new, younger customers to BIAB. His videos are brilliant and concise - the most comprehensive and respected in this genre.

This forum thread has had about 750 views from existing BIAB users who check out the forum wishlist. There is clearly an appetite for what I am suggesting in your existing customers but... Austin's Make Pop Music Youtube channel has 109,000 subscribers. If he promoted his BIAB styles set to them, you would be inundated with new customers! It would be a very quick way to get BIAB known as a serious contender for songwriters in this genre.

I should make it clear that I don't know him personally; like many others, I have been wowed by his 'in the style of' pop genre instructional videos. I'm not always such a fan of all the songs he uses in his tutorials (lyric, melody and chord choices) but his genre deconstructions and recreations are flawless and completely authentic. And that's all you need.

What I have always wanted from BIAB is for it to be like a car, which I can go to when I have the inspiration for a new song. I want to be able to get in it, grab an instantly drivable style and drive uninterrupted to my destination of a finished song. I provide the lyric, chords and melody... Austin's pop style can provide all the stuff under the hood. BIAB users working in genres like blues, jazz, country and oompah have always had that, whereas I get lost in the search for a contemporary pop needle in my haystack of 5,000 styles!

I had a private message from a longtime BIAB user who works in its conventional styles and thinks they're great. He told me that he'd made a Spotify playlist of all the songs in my list and been surprised to find that he liked all 28 of them!

The most important asset that Austin would bring to PG is that contemporary pop music IS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE; he is a fluent speaker of all the sub-genres and he is already doing what PG would want from him - it just needs to be applied to BIAB.

I hope this helps. I would be happy to advise further during the development process, if required.