There are so many wonderful music software tools are available with the wave   of a credit card, why would you want to roll your own? For one thing, you may   want to do esoteric things that no commercial software will do. With the aid   of a program like Pd, you can generate and process complex streams of MIDI   and audio data for a live performance, or build your own software-based synthesizer   and effects. Beyond that, solving technical problems in software design can be a fascinating   intellectual challenge. You get a sense of accomplishment from creating something   that works exactly the way you envisioned. Then there's the money factor. 
