Ghost Producing

It is not recent news that many mainstream DJs don’t write their own music, articles dating back to 2013 hit the top results on Google. It is a very controversial and potentially damaging issue in the industry – that our heroes aren’t the people behind the mixers. The people who actually write the songs are left with a pay-cheque in anonymity while their clients tour on bought talent. Notable acts including David Guetta and Steve Akoi are being revealed to the world as just the face and name to music falsely attributed to them.

Is this an issue? Curious, I went online and explored the various offers ghost producers make to DJs. One site, ghostproducing.com, states that a “team of experienced producers” will work on your track that “you OWN” and then they will “essentially disappear like it never happened“. There seems to be a legitimate market for this though it is almost certainly capitalised by a few individual companies and individuals. My take on it is that nowadays much of the chart music sounds the same, is this the result of the chart-hitting artists seeking shady talent-for-cash offers? Perhaps the charts are monopolised by these “ghosts” in which case it could only be harder for new musicians to hit them. This website offers tracks to be bought for a few hundred dollars each, only being able to be downloaded once, the tracks become the property and pride of some rich DJ/musician to take full credit for. Perhaps the song examples you can hear on the website may become chart hitters, earning some undeserving person stacks of cash and fame all because the bought an expensive song.

The question goes to how widespread the issue (if we are calling it that) goes. Here is a photo released on twitter recently of modern producers and their rumoured ghost producers, I cannot verify this at time of writing but it goes to show the possibility and extent in EDM.

Does this mean modern DJ/Producers can’t be trusted as musicians? Does this mean that the upcoming star at the club is really just a faker with money to spend on fame? The way I see it is DJs and producers are separate anyway. If a DJ has his tracks ghost produced, he can still do a good show. If you are a producer who’s reputation comes from making your own music and it is revealed someone else did that then you should look bad.

The thing is, big name DJs aren’t even good performers of their own music…