Music producers (or record producers) possess a unique passion for creating, recording, and producing music and working in audio post-production, and they have come to play broad roles in the music production process. Producers can actually control recording sessions, and they are even known to coach and guide musicians in performance and career choices. A music producer may supervise the recording, mixing, and mastering processes of record production as well.
Music producers may also manage the selection and arrangement of music, and they may oversee the entire process of recording, from writing lyrics and melodies, to engineering, to having a hand in designing labels for the recordings they produce, thus “creating an image” for musical entertainers.
Independent music production companies have gained a stalwart toehold in pop music and have become liaisons between artists and record labels and artists and managers. They not only produce recordings, but seek out and sign new artists to production contracts. They also license finished products to record labels that press, promote, and sell recordings. Choosing artists that suit their own personal tastes in music, music producers can wield tremendous influence on a musical career, and some even become recording artists themselves.
With the advent of audio production computer software, entire tracks can be composed, arranged, and recorded on a PC or laptop in a home studio. Music producers can work independently, writing, arranging, performing, and recording their own music. Advances in music software have allowed pretty much anyone to take on the roles of both producer and musician. No longer do musicians have to rely on teams of recording engineers and technicians to master professional recordings.
Portable recording equipment has also allowed the on-site recording of live concerts, which can later be very effectively mastered and manufactured. With the Internet supporting the sale of recordings, individuals such as Chuck Plotkin, Eddie Kramer, and Guy Charbonneau have become producers in their own right by producing their concert and performance recordings, which are then offered to fans through Internet sales venues.
This article provides an overview of music production. If you would like to submit an article about music producers or any music-related topic, please feel free to do so here at Media Positive Radio.