What is a music producer?

A music producer, sometimes called a studio producer, record producer, or just producer, typically helps an artist create a sound recording. A music producer is usually responsible for the entire recording process and can sometimes receive a share of the income earned by the sound recording. Music producers work independently or as employees of a record label.

Note, the term music producer can sometimes mean two different things: either the person in the studio as described above or the owner of the sound recording, legally known as the phonogram producer - which can be that same person who is the music producer but might also be a company, typically a record label.

What rights does a music producer have?

Depending on the role of the music producer and who owns the sound recording - the artist, the music producer, or the record label - a music producer's rights will vary.

If you are a music producer and not employed by a record label, the most common scenario is to pay you a flat fee for your work, and sometimes also a percentage of royalties generated from the use of the sound recording, which is usually taken from the artist's share of the sound recording royalties. That royalty share is also known as points, and typically, one point is equal to one percent of the royalties earned from the sound recording.

If you work as a music producer employed by a record label, you are paid for your work through your salary, so you do not own any share of the sound recordings.

Artists can split their royalties with a music producer, and for self-releasing artists, it is also common to share ownership of the sound recordings with the music producers. Our page on Sound Recording Splits explores this in more detail.

If you are a music producer, you might also have additional roles. For example, it's very common for music producers to collaborate with other types of songwriters, such as beatmakers or topliners etc., and create a beat, melody, rap, or lyrics that become part of the musical work. If you are such a music producer, you might also be recognized and credited as a songwriter in addition to your producer role. You might then own a percentage share of the rights in the musical work. There are no standard rules for these situations; this is all subject to negotiation with the other songwriters.

Find out more about how this works in the Songwriting topic.

Video Credit: Tiffany Orvet, Daniel Sundström, Eric Ivar Persson, Christine Miller, Nikki Skelly, Jeff Noble, Tony Bollas, Kelly Wright, Oasis Nguyen, Tobias Leo Nordquist, Ponny Höijer, William Engström, Parapix