In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. This has been a major function of producers since the inception of sound recording, but in the latter half of the 20th century producers also took on a wider entrepreneurial role. These activities comprise record production. The music industry is the industry that creates, performs, promotes, and preserves music. ... Audio mixing is used in sound recording, audio editing and sound systems to balance the relative volume and frequency content of a number of sound sources. ... Audio mastering is the process of preparing and transfering recorded audio to a medium for future duplication. ...

Early record producers

During the 1890s Fred Gaisberg ran the first recording studio and provided the closest approximation of production by guiding an opera singer closer or further away from a gramophone's horn to match the dynamics in the score (Gronow and Saunio 1998, p.8 cited in Moorefield 2005, p.1). Fred Gaisberg was hired by the United States Gramophone Company in April 1893 to begin recording talented singers. ... Edison cylinder phonograph from about 1899 The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s. ...

Within the first half of the 20th century, the record producer's role was comparable to that of a film producer, in that the record producer organised and supervised recording sessions, paid technicians, musicians and arrangers, and sometimes chose material for the artist. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... In popular music an arrangement is a setting of a piece of music, which may have been composed by the arranger or by someone else. ...

In the 1950s this role was performed by the A&R (artist and repertoire) directors, one of the most notable of whom was musician and composer Mitch Miller at Columbia Records. Until the 1960s most producers and A&R directors were salaried staff on the payroll of major record labels, and most recordings were made at studios owned and operated by major record labels, such as the famous EMI Abbey Road Studios in London. The 1950s were the decade that traditionally speaking, spanned the years 1950 through 1959. ... Artist and repertoire (A&R for short) is a music industry term that refers to the division of a record label that is responsible for scouting and developing talent. ... Mitch Miller (born July 4, 1911) is remembered as one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1950s and early 60s. ... Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... The EMI Group is a major record label, based in Kensington in London, in the United Kingdom. ... The legendary recording studio Abbey Road Studios, created in November of 1931 by EMI in London, is best known as the legendary recording studio used by the rock bands The Beatles, Cliff Richard, Pink Floyd and The Shadows. ...

In the mid-1950s a new category emerged, that of the independent record producer. Among the most famous early independent producers are the famed songwriting-production duo Leiber & Stoller, Wall of Sound creator Phil Spector and British studio pioneer Joe Meek. Mike Stoller, Elvis Presley, Jerry Leiber Jerry Leiber (born April 25, 1933) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) are among the most important songwriters and music producers in post-World War II popular music. ... Wall of Sound is a phrase used to describe the effect created by the music production techniques of legendary record producer Phil Spector. ... The Phil Spector anthology album, Back to Mono. ... Joe Meek (April 5, 1929–February 3, 1967) was a pioneering British record producer and composer who is now acknowledged as one of the worlds first independent producers. ...

This change was facilitated by the introduction of high-fidelity magnetic tape recording technology in the mid-1950s, which dramatically altered the processes and economics of music recording. Magnetic tape enabled the establishment of independent recording studios in major recording centres such as London, Los Angeles and New York. Unlike the old record company studios, which were effectively a "closed shop", these new studios could be hired by the hour by anyone who could afford to do so. Compact audio cassette Magnetic tape is a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. ...

The biggest and best commercial studios were typically established and operated by leading recording engineers. They were carefully constructed to create optimum recording conditions, and were equipped with the latest and best recording equipment and top-quality microphones, as well as electronic amplification gear and musical instruments. A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (pronounced mike), is an acoustic to electric transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. ...

Top-line studios such as Olympic Studios in London or United Western Recorders and Musart in Los Angeles quickly became among the most sought-after recording facilities in the world, and both these studios became veritable "hit factories" that produced many of the most successful pop recordings of the latter 20th century. Olympic Studios is a commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, in the south-western suburb of Barnes in London. ... United Western Recorders was a renowned recording studio complex in Hollywood, California, which became one of the most successful independent recording studios in the world in the late 1950s and 1960s. ... Musart is a musical art company founded by Muruga Booker. ...

Evolution of the role of the producer

Prior to the 1950s, the various stages of the recording and marketing process had been carried out by different professionals within the industry -- A&R managers found potential new artists and signed them to their labels; professional songwriters created new material; publishing agents sold these songs to the A&R people; staff engineers carried out the task of making the recordings in company-owned studios.

Freed from this traditional system by the advent of independent commercial studios, the new generation of entrepreneurial producers -- many of whom were former record company employees themselves -- were able to create and occupy a new stratum in the industry, taking on a more direct and complex role in the musical process. This development in music was mirrored in the TV industry by the concurrent development of videotape recording and the consequent emergence of independent TV production companies like Desilu, established by '50s TV superstars Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz. Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording television pictures and accompanying sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ... Desilu Productions was a company jointly owned by American actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. ... Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911–April 26, 1989) was an iconic American actor, comedian and star of I Love Lucy. ... Desi Arnaz (born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III) (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-American musician, actor, comedian and television producer. ...

These producers now typically carried out most or all of these various tasks themselves, including selecting and arranging songs, overseeing sessions (and often engineering the recordings) and even writing the material. Independent music production companies rapidly gained a significant foothold in popular music and soon became the main intermediary between artist and record label, signing new artists to production contracts, producing the recordings and then licensing the finished product to record labels for pressing, promotion and sale. (This was a novel innovation in the popular music field, although a broadly similar system had long been in place in many countries for the production of content for broadcast radio.) The classic example of this transition is renowned British producer George Martin, who worked as a staff producer and A&R manager at EMI for many years, before branching out on his own and becoming a highly successful independent producer. A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

As a result of these changes, record producers began to exert a strong influence, not only on individual careers, but on the course of popular music. Other notable past and present independent producers include Don Kirshner (The Monkees), Mickie Most (one of the most successful of all time), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.Rex), pioneering Australian producer Ted Albert (The Easybeats) and, more recently, American producer and label owner Rick Rubin (Metallica, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Johnny Cash) and Hip-Hop mogul Dr. Dre (N.W.A, Eazy-E, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game). Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. ... Don Kirshner, (April 17, 1934- ) once known as The Man With the Golden Ear, is an American song publisher and rock producer; best known for managing songwriting talent to successful groups like The Monkees and The Archies. ... The Monkees were a four-man musical band created for an American television series of the same name, which ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968. ... Mickie Most, born Michael Peter Hayes- (June 20, 1938- May 30, 2003), successful record producer notably with a string of Number 1 hit singles with his own RAK Recordslabel and acts such as The Animals, Hermans Hermits, Donovan, and Suzi Quatro. ... Tony Visconti in the 1970s Tony Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is a record producer, and often an instrumentalist or singer, who has had a long and illustrious career working with some of the best known popular music artists from the late 1960s onwards, notably T. Rex, David Bowie... David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and mixer, whose work spans more than four decades. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Easybeats were a rock and roll band in the 1960s from Australia. ... Frederick Jay Rubin (born 1963), is a Jewish-American record producer best known for his work with rap and heavy metal, as well as the American series albums with Johnny Cash. ... Metallica is an American heavy metal band, formed in October 1981. ... The Beastie Boys are a hip hop group from the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. ... The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a California-based rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. ... The photo cover of Rages self-titled release from 1992. ... John R. (Johnny) Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an influential American country and rock music singer and songwriter. ... André Romel Young (born on February 18, 1965 in Los Angeles, California), who is better known by his stage name Dr. Dre is an influential Grammy-Award winning American record producer, hip hop producer, rapper, actor and record executive. ... This article is about the rap group. ... Eazy-E (Eric Wright) (September 7, 1963 - March 26, 1995) was an African-American rapper, record producer, and record executive who initially rose to fame as a member of the group N.W.A.. Born in Compton, California, Eazy-E dropped out of Compton High School while in tenth grade... The D.O.C.s debut album, No One Can Do It Better The D.O.C. is the stage name of Tracy Lynn Curry (born June 10, 1968), an American rapper born in Houston, Texas who moved to Compton, California, to join the creative force behind the rap group... Snoop Dogg (other nicknames include The Bigg Boss Dogg, Bigg Snoop Dogg, Snoop D-O Double G, and Snoop Doggy Dogg) (born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. ... Eminem (born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972) is an Academy Award-winning American rapper and occasional actor. ... For the U.S. currency value, see Half dollar (United States coin). ... The Game may mean: // Games and Sports The Game (treasure hunt) , a giant treasure hunt played on several college campuses The Game (game), a game in which the goal is to forget its existence The Game (college football), an annual football game between Harvard and Yale Universities The Game (Highschool...

Realising the potential for creating recordings that could match their musical vision, many successful recording artists have become producers in their own right. Examples are Nile Rodgers, Jeff Lynne, Brian Wilson and Brian Eno. Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952, in New York) is a prolific and influential musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and music producer, and co-founding member of the seminal multi-platinum hit R&B band CHIC, with influential bassist Bernard Edwards. ... Jeff Lynne (born December 30, 1947) in the Shard End area of Birmingham, England, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. ... Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942, in Hawthorne, California) is an American pop musician, best known as a founding member of and the main producer, composer, and arranger for The Beach Boys. ... Brian Eno in 2006 Brian Peter George St. ...

Some producers also became de facto recording artists, often creating records with anonymous studio musicians and releasing them under a pseudonym. Examples of this phenomenon include the records by fictional groups The Archies and Josie & The Pussycats, produced by Don Kirshner and Danny Jansen respectively, who were contracted by TV production companies to produce these records to promote the animated children's TV series of the same name. The Archies are a group of adolescent fictional characters of the Archie universe, a garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones. ... Josie and the Pussycats are a fictitious rock band created by Dan DeCarlo. ...

Producers and modern recording technology

In modern electronic music (not to be confused with "electronica" music, but any music created using electronic equipment, which can include rap and r&b, as well as the many different categories of dance music and new age), the producer is often the only person involved in the creation of a musical recording, and is responsible for both writing, performing, recording and arranging the material. The term "producer" is nearly synonymous with "musician" in this field. This change has been partly due to the increase of inexpensive yet powerful music production software, which allows for entire tracks to be composed, arranged and recorded at home on a PC or laptop, allowing the traditional roles of a team of people to be performed by one individual. Popular PC music production software packages include Sony ACID Pro, Sony Vegas, Pro Tools, Cakewalk SONAR, Logic Pro, Cubase, Reason, Ableton Live and FL Studio (formerly "Fruity Loops"). Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. ... Sony ACID Pro is the name of the loop-based music production software originally published by Sonic Foundry that is now owned and run by Sony. ... Sony Vegas is a non-linear editing system produced by Sony Media Software. ... Pro Tools 6. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Logic Pro is a MIDI sequencer and Digital Audio Workstation software application that runs on the Mac OS X platform. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Reason is a popular music software program developed by Swedish software developers Propellerhead Software. ... Ableton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer for Macintosh and Windows. ... FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops, still available in Fruity Loops edition) is a music production software package created by Image-Line Software. ...

With the advent of portable recording equipment, live album production has become much more cost effective than in the past couple of decades. This has resulted in thousands of live music recordings flooding the internet and music stores. Notable live concert record producers include: Guy Charbonneau, Randy Ezratty, Eddie Kramer, Mark Cavener, Allen Reynolds, and Chuck Plotkin. Eddie Kramer is a legendary audio engineer and producer who has worked with KISS, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Joe Cocker, Mott the Hoople, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, et al. ... Music producer / audio engineer known for working with recording artists such as Nickelback, Sugar Ray, Heart, Cheap Trick, Vertical Horizon, Fuel, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Fountains of Wayne, Live, 3 Doors Down, Jet, Michael Bublé, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Finger Eleven, Simple Plan, Spearhead, Trolls Cottage, Peter... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

See also

• List of record producers
• Recording studio

This is a list of record producers: Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A Mark Abramson producer for Judy Collins, Love, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. ... A recording studio is a facility for sound recording. ...

Sources

• Gronow, Pekka and Ilpo Saunio (1998). An International History of the Recording Industry. ISBN 0-304-70590-X. Cited in Moorefield (2005).
• Moorefield, Virgil (2005). The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music. ISBN 0-262-13457-8.