How does one start in being a music producer?

you must like music.

oh and deaf people is a no no.

How familiar with the structure of music are you? Musical notation? Studios? If you have no real knowledge of how music is produced or recorded, you may want to look into something else.

Liking music is a must. Having solid knowledge of music theory is probably an extremely good idea.

A lot of people start as recording studio engineers, for which there are classes in large cities. You could intern at a local recording studio and ask how it’s done there. Others, like Jones, are musicians who learnt hands-on in the studio and had definite ideas of how they wanted their own music to sound and worked from there as people who liked what they did came to them and asked, “Can you do that for me?”

Or take a chance, write your producer heroes and ask them what you should do. Show your passion and let them know how much you admire them in such an inquiry letter and someone would most certainly reply. Cast your net as widely as possible in that regard.

Good luck!

My brother acts nowadays as a music producer. He has been a working musician for 30 years and folks have gotten to know him and his sound, so they have come to him for production. He is an example of the Quincy Jones type of producer.

Knowing and loving music is essential. Knowing how to manipulate the various controls in the studio is also essential. It is also a good idea to have knowledge about how to actually get the recordings made and packaged, and how the whole music scene works. And then knowing musicians (and musicians knowing you) is also vital.

As expected, there is an entry at wikiHow and actually there is a second one there as well, and there are entries at eHow. They basically all say “Know and love music, start at the bottom, and network like crazy.”

With the music capabilities available on your computer, you can produce the music yourself. Make music, put it on facebook, and sit back to watch the money roll in. Or maybe there are a few steps I have left out.

I’d love to end up as a producer as well, but I really want to get my music skill as a musician at their highest first, so I’m going to do drums at a music college, then make as many contacts as possible, and try to focus on ending up as a producer.

There really isn’t any right or wrong way, on any pre-set path man. Just get as involved with the music bizz as possible and make as many friends as you can.

Usually you just end up there, in the way most football coaches start off as either football players or some sort of team member. Most producers used to be musicians, perhaps not successful ones, who eventually became agents or something. Or had the right connections.

I worked as a producer for many years, even when I was still singing professionally myself, mainly in an effort to help out young talented musicians, since I already knew how to make an album and could do it a lot easier than they could. We had a small indie label that eventually went bust, and then I opened up a new one with a friend. That one is still going strong and he’s the one doing the productions (I’ve since quit due to family reasons), but I still try and help out people sometimes.

Being a producer means you somehow got to know how the whole system works and what the process of making an album is. The better you know it, the better results you can expect.