What is The Job of a Producer?

In short, the job of the producer, is to produce. Plain and simple. However, this can become rather complicated very fast depending on the size of the project. There are movie producers, music video producers, record producers, beatmakers (who are often referred to as producers and they really are – they are beat producers since they “produced” the beat). A songwriter that is brought in to work on a song with an artist on a project can be considered a producer, as they often are nowadays, if they help make the project come to light. Even mix engineers are being called producers and some are negotiating “points” or a percentage of sales/streams/other revenue. In olden days the producer was looking over or providing the money to make things happen, but as the costs have significantly gone down over the years (a friend of mine had her band get Grammy action a few years back from a recording the band made in the back of a tour bus with an MBox and a laptop).

Anyway, for right now we’ll focus on the producers who make records happen and by records, I mean records of sound, sound recordings. A record in this sense isn’t just slab of vinyl – it’s whatever you can make a sound recording on. There’s three types of people most likely reading this:

1. A producer (or least someone who wants to be one)
2. A person who isn’t a producer, but wants to understand what a producer’s job is
3. A random reader

All of you can find something here.

If you are producer, or you want to be one, then it’s your job to figure out how to bring a project into being a finished product. Whether you are hired by a label, hired by an indie artist, or you want to work on your own projects if you are not completing the projects then you are not hitting the goal of your title. You might be a producer-in-training and that’s ok, but producers have something to show for their efforts. The reason someone is going to be interested in you is because of what you show as a finished products. Understanding from the start what you’re producing is important. If you’re goal is to make beats and you make beats, then you are indeed a beat producer. If you’re goal is produce vocals and you have songs where you’ve helped an artist solidify the vocal sound somehow to finish that portion of the product, then you are a vocal producer. It’s just important to understand that a producer creates products. The root word of Production is Product. Remember that:

PRODUC(ers) create PRODUC(ts)

And as your skill increases in your area of PRODUCtion, you’ll be able to create better products. Like any skill, you’ll get better at it as you do it more, so produce, produce, produce, even if you’re making garbage at first, over time you’ll start to make better garbage and then you’ll make hot garbage and later maybe something pretty cool, but don’t worry, you’ll make more garbage later too.

The most successful people have failed more times than most ever try.

For those of you who don’t want to be producers, but want to know what their job is, now you know. Their job is fail many, many times over… and hopefully, bring that experience to someone who needs it. Producers don’t always get the light that stars get, but they are important nonetheless. If you are thinking about enlisting a producer to help you, then finding someone who has experience in the area you want to explore can be invaluable. Maybe you’re a musician or singer-songwriter or a rapper and you want to make an album. The equipment is definitely cheaper nowadays from the recording setup on to the cameras for the music videos and even distribution, but having someone to help you will save you time and money PLUS allow you to focus more on the music which is what you should probably be focusing on anyway right?

And to you randoms, now when you hear about the producer, I hope you see that the producer might be the person who made the music, or helped decide what kind of vocal effects were used, or maybe they were just the person with some money making the initial investment that got the whole ball rolling (or kept it rolling). There are so many kinds of producers and all of them have been a part of some of the most memorable songs of the past 100 years. Without them, we have no music products – no songs, no music videos – and without that, we wouldn’t have the artists as widespread really either. Producers are right at the heart of the entire industry and without them, so much would never happen.