What Is Music Production - Beginner's Guide

The music and media industry is booming in 2022. A lot of new people are gaining interest in music production and how it works. Music production is a domain that encompasses many roles and is constantly evolving with changes in technology. So it is important to keep up to date and keep on learning and adapting to the new. In this article, let us understand music production and its important definitions.

What is Music Production

Music Production is the process of creating and releasing music. Music Production is both managerial and a creative process required for creating and releasing music. In the music industry, music production may include tasks like creating beats, sketching out demo songs, writing compositions, managing musicians or artists, making artistic changes, planning and executing session workflow, coordinating among different teams and artists, making financial decisions etc. In a Home Studio or Small Studios, Music Production is more of an artistic and engineering approach. In a home studio, music production incorporates roles like designing studio workflow, writing compositions, producing beats, mixing tracks, mastering music etc.

Music Production In Music Industry

Whenever an album is recorded or released on a professional scale by a record label, it incorporates a lot of jobs and roles that need to be carried out. This can range anywhere from managing finances, artistic and creative decisions, engineering tracks, marketing and release plans, managing artist and people etc. All these tasks are carried out by different people or teams.

Record Label

Record Labels that sign up an artist are owners of the music recording or music videos that are released. Record labels act as a publishing company that manages trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, sales, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos.

Vision, Project Management and Coaching

Managing a project is challenging and demanding. It incorporates artistic as well as managerial skills. A music producer is a person responsible for finding and launching a project.

The music producer is the one with the vision and directions for any music project. A music producer is a creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists. The main task of a music producer is to bring the vision to life, no matter what it takes. You can relate a music producer to a film director or a captain of the ship. 

Music producers carry out roles like hiring composers, musicians, engineers, and key members for composing the album and overseeing all elements of pre-production, production and post-production, right up to release. A music producer can also add and alter the artistic elements like song structure, melodies of a song. He/She can also take on engineering-related roles.

Composition and Musical Ideas

Creating a composition and music is a must. Music is composed either by the artist or by a music producer. Lyrics are generally written by a lyricist. If there are sounds that need to be designed, these are designed by a sound designer.

Production and Engineering Of Music

The production phase of a track takes place when a track is composed and a demo is prepared. Production of a track consists of tasks like tracking and recording music, mixing and mastering music. These are tasks that are carried out by an audio engineer or at times by the producer.

Studio Management

A Music Studio is a commercial space that is used to produce tracks. A music studio consists of different areas like tracking rooms, control rooms, equipment rooms, reverb chambers, office are, artist rooms etc. A commercial music studio is managed by a studio manager.  There are other studio roles like instrument and equipment technologies that are carried out by studio technicians, studio administrators, clerks etc.

Financial And Legal Roles

Producing Commercial music involves a lot of financial and legal decisions. These are carried out by executive producers. Executive producer is one of the top positions in the making of commercial music. The executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues like copyrights or royalties.

The executive producer is responsible for business decisions and organising the recordings along with the music producer.

Artist Management

An artist manager is a professional representative and advisor for a musician or band. Artist managers help build an artist's career and get their client's music in the hands of producers and label executives, as well as negotiating contracts and setting up tours.

Music Production In-Home Studio

In 2022, home studios have evolved greatly and a lot of huge hits are composed in-home studios or small studios.  In a home studio or a small studio, the music production process is not carried out on a large scale and involves a few artists and people. In a home studio or small studio environment, music is produced and generally released by an independent artist/band. There are no commercial record labels involved.

The process of producing a track in a home studio is completely different from a commercial studio, and multiple roles are generally carried out by a single person.

One Person — Several Roles

In a home studio/small studio, a music producer carries out all major roles. Music Producer manages and sets up the studio, manages equipment, writes and composes music, arranges music, produces and engineers the music and beats etc.

There are a lot of artists who do everything related to producing a track on their own. This requires a lot of skill and discipline.

Artists

Some home studios/ small studios also produce music for another artist. In such scenarios, they collaborate with other artists and produce the track together. An example of such collaboration would be a music producer collaborating with a Vocalist to produce a track.

Sales, Marketing and Distribution

If an album or a track is released by a small home studio or an independent artist or band, marketing is carried out by them on their own. Sometimes they hire third-party marketing agencies and distribution agencies as well that help them with marketing, distribution and sales. 

A lot of people get confused between music production and audio engineering. In the next article, understand what is audio engineering.