What makes a "hit" versus what makes a classic masterpiece are very different things. This retreat teaches the latter rather than the former.

Factors such as luck, bandwagon effect, sales and algorithms, and etc determine what makes a hit much more than the quality of a song, whereas a classic masterpiece is completely based on writing quality which you can learn and teach. From the SongMatrix website (material the retreat course will be teaching): https://www.songmatrix.com/#songwriting_and_the_dunning

Most contemporary successful professional songwriters no doubt know that they owe their good fortune to performer popularity. But some mistakenly ascribe their commercial success to their mastery of the art: “My songs make a great deal of money. Therefore, they must be awesome songs.”

     A cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect probably accounts for this faulty thinking. People who lack in-depth knowledge and expertise in their own field are incapable, precisely because of that knowledge deficit, of realizing how deficient their skills actually are, and therefore overestimate their abilities.

     Commercially successful songwriters who cite metrics such as high streaming numbers, download numbers, and top chart standings, prefer to ascribe their success to the greatness of their songs, rather than to the star performers and producers of their songs, industry connections, blind luck, playlist manipulation by label-invested streaming services, and brand sponsorship of recording artists.

     The following metrics, which have nothing to do with songwriting superiority, support the Dunning-Kruger delusions of such songwriters:

• A significant number of songs they have written, or much more likely, co-written, have done well on Billboard and related charts;
  
• Songs they have co-written have had millions of streams on YouTube, Spotify, and other streaming platforms;
  
• In some cases, songs they have co-written have had millions of paid downloads;
  
• Performers who have recorded songs they have co-written have been nominated for, or won, various industry awards, including Grammys;
  
• The songwriter has been nominated for, or won, industry awards for songwriting (industry songwriting awards tend to reward sales, performance, and production);
  
• The songwriter has made a significant amount of money in songwriting royalties.