Classical composers have faced similar challenges when creating their works, as their music sketches, correspondences and contemporary sources prove. But a comparison has never been made between their note-centred way of working with music and the strategies of popular music producers, who don’t normally work with written material but usually shape and create their material sonically in an analogue or virtual digital studio environment. This chapter will show that the working strategies of classical composers and digital music producers have several features in common, both on macro and on micro level.