Record Producers’ Best Practices For Artistic Direction—From Light Coaching To Deeper Collaboration With Musicians

International audienceRecord producers interact with musicians to obtain the best artistic results from recording sessions. Commonly described as professionals without well-defined skills, the producers’ role has received scant attention. In this paper, we report a qualitative investigation of the producers’ tacit knowledge, skills and competences involved in making successful recordings, and we develop a model of artistic direction for studio sessions, extending Hennion (1989)’s concept of ‘intermediary between production and consumption’.We interviewed six world-renowned record producers about their mission, their methods of production and their contribution to the creative process of musical recordings. We first analysed their responses using content analysis. We then investigated emerging concepts using linguistic analysis with an emphasis on the producer’s artistic involvement during recording sessions.This combination of qualitative methods used in the Social Sciences (Grounded Theory) and in Linguistics allowed us to investigate in depth best practices for studio recording. Through this inductive analysis, we identified and described various levels of a producer’s artistic involvement during recording sessions, namely From context to situation, Intermediary role, Verbal communication, Management and Artistic collaboration. We also present inter-personal skills shared amongst interviewees to help musicians complete their recording project in the best possible conditions