Well in Blume's case.... he's been working on it since 1980 at least... getting educated, being rejected, etc. He has top-10 cuts in multiple genres. He's super commercial; some would say to a nausseating degree.

Every month be studies the top-10 songs in each chart and breaks them down by similarities. His goal is to extract the trends in writing a "Hit Song." That's different than trying to write a subjectively "good" song. So his workshops and feedback are aimed at people who want to write "Hit Songs."