Why is a Producer Needed IN and ON a Recording Session?

Today, the recording industry has two kinds of producers: music producers and executive producers, both who have different roles in the recording process.

A music producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording (i.e. “production”) of an artist’s music.

A music producer has many roles that may include, but are not limited to, gathering ideas for the project, selecting songs and/or musicians, coaching the artist and musicians in the studio, and supervising the entire process from recording to mixing, and mastering. 

Music producers sometimes will take on a wider entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, negotiations, the hiring of musicians (which includes beat makers), selecting the recording studio and/or engineer(s), determining how many hours are required for recording and mixing, and most importantly, keeping track of the booked hours (as a means of staying within the contracted budget).

An executive producer oversees a project’s finances by investing their money, or will find others to invest in such.  The executive producer gets their moneys returned from the sale of CD’s –or whatever else is spelled out in the contract.   This return is usually with a substantial amount of interest (after all, it is their money that started the project) –and is usually paid back before the artist can collect any of their royalties.