The producer’s task in marketing music

Standard People
This week, I want to go a bit on the technical side of how music, which most of us take for granted, is produced.

This week, I want to go a bit on the technical side of how music, which most of us take for granted, is produced.

in the groove by Fred Zindi

Many artistes seem to forget about the role played by producers in making their music appreciated by the public, hence marketable. Producers are often people who understand the harmonic progressions, modulations, the timbre or the coda in music and usually work behind the scenes. They create those beats and sounds which entice the public to like an artiste’s music.

The music producer is a professional who works with recording artistes and bands, sound engineers, record labels and marketing teams to oversee all creative and technical aspects of an album. In short, the producer is in charge of a music production, because he/she directs and controls the entire production process of a musical record. Thus, the success or failure of a music production lies with him/her. The producer is a personnel in the studio whose job is to sequence the sound tracks/beats for an artiste, cue in the artiste and make corrections in terms of diction in any area where the artiste may sound faulty during recording. He is usually assisted by a sound engineer who is a personnel in the studio, whose job is to monitor live recording often with the use of the computer, mixer and other machines in the studio to mix and master already recorded work of production.

The producer’s roles are as follows: gathering ideas for the project, selecting and arranging songs, coaching the musicians/artistes on technicalities in the studio, controlling the recording sessions and supervising the entire production process through tracking, mixing, overdubbing and mastering.

There are two kinds of producers in the recording industry, executive producer and music producer. The former oversees the financing of a project, while the latter manages the creation of the music (ie, from laying down of tracks to full compact disc production). The music producer (who is often a musician in his/her own right) also uses his/her creative skills and full knowledge as his/her tools of production (computer, mixer, sequence, etc) to create, shape, and mould a piece of music. He/she develops an overall vision of the artiste’s album and on how the various songs may interrelate to achieve a high quality production.

The first stage of musical production is done between the producer and the artiste. In the past, during the time of Gramma Records, Record and Tape Productions (RTP) and Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC), most music producers such as Tymon Mabaleka, Bothwell Nyamhondera, AK Mapfumo, Hilton Mambo, Henry Peters, Chrispen Matema, Peter Muparutsa and others, were actually employed by the record companies which sponsored artistes with great musical talents and produced their work. Although the individual producer may regard himself as a professional, he is not truly so unless other members of society acknowledge his claims and accord him the role and status he seeks for himself. Sometimes, the producers access the talent and creativity of the musician through audition, before they are signed in for the business. If the musician performs satisfactorily in the audition, the producer allows the artiste to work with his record label. The signing of the artiste to a record label makes him/her part and parcel of the label crew. Therefore, the musical creativity of the artiste must be put into action for better production, to ensure continued support from the record label.

In Zimbabwe, many artistes have in the past gone through producers such as the late Fortune Muparutsa, Andrew Baird, Delani Makhalima, Audius Mtawarira and Simba Tags.

With the advent of the numerous backyard studios mainly in high-density suburbs, the number of so-called music producers has also increased. Some are successful, others are not. One successful producer, who recently returned from a jaunt in Detroit, Michigan in the United States, where he was invited in recognition of his good works, is Clive Mono Mukundu of Monolio Studios. He had the opportunity to visit Motown Records while there. In Zimbabwe he works from a garage in Hatfield and many top Zimbabwean and international artistes have gone through his hands of production. He is credited with the production of over 900 albums.

Lately, there has been a flood of Zimdancehall producers. Names such as PTK, JMP, Levels and Oskid come to mind.

For an artiste to be successful, the producer must select his/her tracks that will be marketable in society. This is done in agreement with the artiste. Thus, the producer meets with the artiste and they agree on what to include on the album. If a consensus is reached on what tracks are to be produced, the producer books a recording session with a standard studio to ensure quality production. At this stage, the producer ensures a working environment between the artiste and the record engineer towards a quality recording and mixing of the record, in line with the production plan. The producer ensures that the artiste’s concept of sound is protected by the sound engineer. In some cases, the producer gives advice to the artiste who accepts such advice in lieu of his concept or rejects it when necessary. A good producer should not change the concept of the artiste’s song or the emotion it’s supposed to evoke, but should give advice from his/her own experience..

A good music album without a marketing and publicity strategy is doomed, because it will run at a loss and its acceptability in society will yield no result. Thus, a good public and marketing plan for a music album makes an artiste’s work popular. This task is a major function of the music producer. The producer, first and foremost, outlines a suitable location/area in society, where such a music album would be marketable to maximise its profit.

Apart from the marketing of the album, the producer ensures that he/she gives his/her artiste good publicity at live shows. The acceptability of the songs is given the nod by the audience whose applause cheers up the musician. On the contrary, booing sounds may show the dissatisfaction of the audience with the music works performed.

The producer must have technical know-how especially with today’s ever-changing technology. This is an important factor that accounts for the popularity of artistes’ music. Recording software is one of the production tools introduced as a result of digital computers available across the globe, to facilitate music production. Look at Winky D’s live performances. They are supported by computerised software. He can go on stage and sing Dzika Ngirosi with the full support from computer software which gives the full backing vocals of Vabati Va Jehovah without necessarily having the group on stage. The software is a program application that allows the sound engineer, sound editor and producer to record, produce, edit and mix musical sounds directly, using the computer’s special features which include: synthesisers, equalisers, compressor unit, sequences and effects for audio and video recording. Notable among these software are Cake Walk, Sonar, Steinberg, Cubase, Ableton, Suit*, Nuendo, Logic and Pro-tools, Wavsaur, FL Studio, Reason, etc. The Pro-tools is most widely used in digital audio workstation in the music industry. It provides all the things needed to compose, record, edit and mix music.

The following are techniques used by the music producer for easy storage and distribution of musical product:

Recording Loop: This is an effective editing technique used in digital production. The process is called looping. It effectively stores musical data and as well sustains notes (loop). You must have heard or seen the words Mp3 and Mp4 and wondered what all this means. Mp3 is a powerful format for delivery of digital music. It helps to distribute music files and is referred to as a compression technique. It condenses audio files, making them easier and faster to store and distribute. Mp4 is another popular digital format that has an effective compression technique used to condense both audio and video files for easy storage and distribution. Anyway, that is a topic for another day.

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