This book provides a method for integrating songwriting with music production, enabling students and experienced musicians to create and produce finished, original pop songs.

Toby Koenigsberg presents an industry-standard process of songwriting in the context of popular digital audio workstations (DAWs): Apple’s GarageBand, for Mac users, and Ableton’s Live, for either Mac or PC users. It covers musical and lyrical aspects of songwriting while providing walkthroughs of the DAWs. No prior experience with songwriting or DAWs is required to use this book. It provides:

- An end-to-end songwriting and music production experience
- A clear explanation of elements of music, fundamental music theory, popular music song theory, and DAW tutorials
- A wealth of multimedia, including dozens of song examples

New to the 3rd edition:

- Updated software images
- Over 30 new song examples, including many songs from the 2020s
- An expansive new appendix exploring songwriting theory with tutorials for applying more advanced techniques
- Enhanced instructions for changing dissonant notes to consonant notes and for using Tambourine, Shaker, and Vocal loops in GarageBand
- More chord progression options and added safeguards against overlooking project extraction and the installation of Live Packs in Ableton

Developed in consultation with charting popular music industry experts – with credits including writing, producing, and mixing for Elton John, Steve Aoki, Desiigner, Backstreet Boys, 24kGoldn, Krewella, Chelsea Cutler, French Montana, and many more – this book presents a clear and detailed song creation process that can be easily adapted to suit individual artistic goals.