Every musician should own Ableton Live. There's a lot of different ways of utilising it and there's bound to be something for everyone.
One way I use it is to take our "jam tapes" (actually a HiMD) and loop those fleeting moments of coolness that would otherwise disappear forever. Then, they form the basis of a whole song, or get morphed into a bridge for an existing song or whatever...
I've salvaged everything from entirely improvised songs right down to a two chord "accidental chord sequence." (guitarist plays a random chord then the keyboardist just happens to hit another random chord that just happens to fit with it - from whence has grown an entire song!)
Now, nothing at our jams is wasted... except us!