The difference(s) between production and co-production

[Music From Iran]

What really is the difference in roles between the person credited as the ''producer'' and the person credited as the ''co-producer''?
Does it have to do with personal arrangements between themselves where they decide who put in more work?

Or, if I lay down the foundations of a track (loosely the same melody, bass, drum pattern etc.) and then somebody else improves it (changing things at the same time, but still clearly the same track), who gets what type of credit? (the Tide commercial thread reminded me of this)

How about if I play the keyboard part, which I came up with and is key to the overall song? Do I get co-production credits, or just ''keyboard'' credits?

 

[that one dude]

the short answer is: the person who gets the money is the producer

There are many producers who essentially do nothing musical but are trusted to have a good "ear" and there are producers who do everything; make the beat, tell the singer what to sing and mix the track.

It comes down to who has connections and makes the deal most times as far as who gets credited as producer and who gets credited as co-producer

 

[ATL Crunk Man]

Usually, the co-producer is the person that makes the entire beat (all by himself) and the producer is the person that produces the studio session.

Example: Young Jeezy - Who Dat (Prod. by Shawty Redd, co-produced by D. Rich)

D. Rich made that whole beat by himself, but he was credited as the co-producer, while Shawty Redd was credited as the producer.

 

[jAyLIEN2010]

It can mean a number of things. The best way, is there is a main producer who does the majority of the work, then the co-producer comes in and adds little things here and there.like with Bryan Michael cox and kendrick dean....

Then there is the producer and co-producer situation where the smaller producer does the whole or majority of the track...and is given a chance by a bigger producer for a major placement. So the co producer might make the beat, but the big producer will stamp it, and be the reason it gets placed.

Or the producer and co-producer can sit together and make the track both adding things, taking turns.

Producer and Co-producer, the meaning, has a broad spectrum.

 

[ATL Crunk Man]

It can mean a number of things. The best way, is there is a main producer who does the majority of the work, then the co-producer comes in and adds little things here and there.like with Bryan Michael cox and kendrick dean....

Then there is the producer and co-producer situation where the smaller producer does the whole or majority of the track...and is given a chance by a bigger producer for a major placement. So the co producer might make the beat, but the big producer will stamp it, and be the reason it gets placed.

Or the producer and co-producer can sit together and make the track both adding things, taking turns.

Producer and Co-producer, the meaning, has a broad spectrum.

Exactly! Close thread.

 

[that one dude]

Producer and Co-producer, the meaning, has a broad spectrum.

No it doesn't
Producer has a very simple meaning

The Producer is the person who has the responsibility of delivering the finished "product", the product being a music recording in this case.
If they are working for or contracted by a company (a record company or production company for example) they will be given a certain amount of money to do that. If they own the company that is contracting the product they will put the money up themselves.
The PROCESS of delivering this finished product has a broad spectrum of possibilities...
which are narrowed down by the PRODUCER with the agreement of whoever is paying for the "product".
The producer has the option of farming every part of the process out to other people, doing it all himself, or anything in between those two extremes as long as the company that contracted him(her) is satisfied with the end result.
If the production requires a team the producer will put the team together and assign and define the roles.
A co-producer is someone who is being given the prestige (and theoretically the money that goes along with it) of being part of the official production team. A ghost producer, musician or engineer is someone who is not.
Oftentimes it's the people who are not officially part of the team who do the majority of the work that the producer requires. Oftentimes people who've done very little actual work who are part of the production or record company "team" will get a co-producer credit.
Btw, there is theoretically nothing stopping a co-producer from hiring his OWN musicians or even his own ghost producer to do the work for him
he would just have to get the producer to agree to it.

 

[NYCityLife1000]

And what about the future producer?