by Jnmarseille13 (July 8th, 2024)
by Jnmarseille13 (July 8th, 2024)
Very often, we use the term producer to define roles in music, knowing that it’s a word that can have two different meanings. In reality, on one side, you have a “music producer”, and on the other side, you have an “executive producer”. Both have very important roles in a music project, but they are very different. Let’s dig into this topic…
I’m going to show you a typical example of how a music project comes to live and gets distributed.
So, during the first phase, an artist has to release an EP. The project will require several people with different skills : session musicians, arrangers, composers, background singers, featuring artists, mixing and mastering engineers… And this whole project must be coherent at the end.
Then, once everything is fully done, the second phase begins : the EP will have to be released, distributed, and promoted, in order to reach fans and new listeners. In addition to that, there will need to be a defined strategy in which the artist will defend their project in front of the audience (live performances, interviews, social media ad campaigns and more…).
As you can see, the first phase is mostly about the artistic aspect of the project (the actual music), and the person taking care of all of this is called a music producer. The second aspect is about pushing the finished product to an audience and maximizing profit ; the person in charge of this aspect is called an executive producer.
In order for a project to be made, sometimes, several people will have to engage in it, using their skills. So, it’s a load of different abilities that merge together, and they need to be directed, which will result in a coherent high-quality project. The music producer is kind of like a conductor in an orchestra, the core, the brain of the project. The producer doesn’t have to master every single skill, but has good overall knowledge on every aspect of the creative process in order to give directions to everyone involved.
SThe executive producer is the owner of the project. Why? Because it’s the executive producer who invests their money and resources in this project (the different people, the studio sessions etc…). So, the product being his or hers, it’s the executive producer’s role to create a strategy and bring all the resources to push the project in the ears of an audience and generate money off of it.
Now that you understand those two different roles, it’s important to know that it’s not all black and white. An artist may be their own music producer AND executive producer, which is the case for many uprising independent artists nowadays. Record labels can be considered as executive producers, as they own projects and are in charge of pushing them. In Hip-Hop and EDM, a beatmaker is usually considered as producer, because they take care of pretty much every single aspect of the creative process in the instrumental. See, the roles are clear, but can be taken by one single person or entity.
I hope this little article helped you understand the difference between a music producer and an executive producer 🙂
Very often, we use the term producer to define roles in music, knowing that it’s a word that can have two different meanings. In reality, on one side, you have a “music producer”, and on the other side, you have an “executive producer”. Both have very important roles in a music project, but they are very different. Let’s dig into this topic…
I’m going to show you a typical example of how a music project comes to live and gets distributed.
So, during the first phase, an artist has to release an EP. The project will require several people with different skills : session musicians, arrangers, composers, background singers, featuring artists, mixing and mastering engineers… And this whole project must be coherent at the end.
Then, once everything is fully done, the second phase begins : the EP will have to be released, distributed, and promoted, in order to reach fans and new listeners. In addition to that, there will need to be a defined strategy in which the artist will defend their project in front of the audience (live performances, interviews, social media ad campaigns and more…).
As you can see, the first phase is mostly about the artistic aspect of the project (the actual music), and the person taking care of all of this is called a music producer. The second aspect is about pushing the finished product to an audience and maximizing profit ; the person in charge of this aspect is called an executive producer.
In order for a project to be made, sometimes, several people will have to engage in it, using their skills. So, it’s a load of different abilities that merge together, and they need to be directed, which will result in a coherent high-quality project. The music producer is kind of like a conductor in an orchestra, the core, the brain of the project. The producer doesn’t have to master every single skill, but has good overall knowledge on every aspect of the creative process in order to give directions to everyone involved.
SThe executive producer is the owner of the project. Why? Because it’s the executive producer who invests their money and resources in this project (the different people, the studio sessions etc…). So, the product being his or hers, it’s the executive producer’s role to create a strategy and bring all the resources to push the project in the ears of an audience and generate money off of it.
Now that you understand those two different roles, it’s important to know that it’s not all black and white. An artist may be their own music producer AND executive producer, which is the case for many uprising independent artists nowadays. Record labels can be considered as executive producers, as they own projects and are in charge of pushing them. In Hip-Hop and EDM, a beatmaker is usually considered as producer, because they take care of pretty much every single aspect of the creative process in the instrumental. See, the roles are clear, but can be taken by one single person or entity.
I hope this little article helped you understand the difference between a music producer and an executive producer 🙂