The Preface

Excerpt from Wikipedia…

“A record 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 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, controlling the recording sessions, and supervising the entire process through mixing and mastering. Over the latter half of the 20th century, producers have also taken on a wider entrepreneurial role, often with responsibility for the budget, schedules, and negotiations.

Today, the recording industry has two kinds of producers: executive producer and music producer; they have different roles. While an executive producer oversees a project’s finances, a music producer oversees the creation of the music. A music producer can, in some cases, be compared to a film director in that a music producer’s job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music. The scope of responsibility may be one or two songs or an artist’s entire album — in which case the producer will typically develop an overall vision for the album and how the various songs may interrelate. In the UK, before the rise of the record producer, an A&R man would oversee the recording session(s), assuming responsibility for creative decisions relating to the recording.”

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_producer