The Music Producers Guild has been in existence since the mid-1980’s. It is an industry organisation which represents and supports the interests of all those involved in the production of recorded music in the UK, including record producers, recording engineers and mixers, re-mixers and mastering engineers.
It is a non-profit organisation, run by volunteers from the membership, and offers services to its members which include specialist seminars, panel events, professional advice and generous discounts on legal, accounting and insurance services and the purchase of professional equipment and computer software.
The MPG presents the annual MPG Awards event, which recognises and celebrates the creative and technical achievements of those whose work is, more often than not, over-shadowed by the attention which generally falls, not unreasonably, upon recording artists. The MPG Awards, for one evening every year, seeks to re-dress the balance and shine the spotlight on those producers and engineers who make possible those iconic music productions which we all cherish. A comprehensive archive of photography, video clips and press releases from all the MPG Awards events can be found here.
The MPG represents its members to government and to the rest of the UK music industry through its presence at the board meetings of several industry organisations, including UK Music, BASCA, PRS, MU.
Credit Where Credit Is Due – an initiative to promote the inclusion of credits for the various roles of music production staff within digital music download files (or linked to an on-line database). Currently, those responsible for the artistic and technical achievements involved in contemporary music production go completely unrecognised. These credits, included as standard practice in the sleeve notes and artwork of CD’s and vinyl albums, are currently completely unavailable when digital downloads are purchased, or music tracks are streamed, by the general public.The MPG seeks to rectify this short-coming by urging all consumers and recording artists to make their voices heard to the industry which is responsible for the distribution of recorded music. In 2014, the MPG Mastering Group achieved a significant breakthrough in lobbying for, and securing, the adoption by the EBU, as a new standard of technical procedure, the inclusion of unique IRSC‘s within the meta-data of BWAV audio files. More details here…
The Sound Quality of Digital Music Files – the currently accepted standard for the “quality” of digital audio download files (mp3) falls well short of the quality which is actually achieved in the recording studio by professional producer sand engineers. Consequently, listeners are deprived of the satisfaction of experiencing the sound which the artist, producer and engineers intended. The MPG is campaigning for the highest possible quality of recorded music to be made available for the listening public. The mp3 format was introduced when digital download files first became available; their reduced size made downloading possible. Now that internet speeds have increased immensely and high capacity hard drives and mobile devices are widely and cheaply available, the reduction in file size, known as “compression”. is now longer necessary, and high quality audio files should be made more widely available.
If you would like to interview one of our members, or feature a producer in your publication or media outlet, please contact Laura Bradley, who will help you identify the right member and coordinate the arrangements.
email: laura@sproutpr.co.uk
mobile: +44 (0)7966 435026
