Behind the board
The people who decide how a record sounds
A producer's name is on the sleeve in small type and nowhere in the chorus. These are the producers credited on the most tracks for artists other than themselves, and the artists they were credited with. Pick a decade to see who was running the room then.
- Producers indexed
- 7,040
- Artists counted
- 365
- Albums counted
- 3,200
- Albums verified
- 3,141
What these numbers count
What is in
The producer credit rows on the 3,200 studio albums entered so far, 3,141 of which have had their credits checked against liner notes or another primary source. Ranking is by tracks produced, then by how many artists those tracks are spread across.
What is out
Producing your own act. A production credit to a band, or to one of its members on that band's record, belongs to that act and stops there. This board counts hired hands, so an artist who mostly produces themselves sits low here or does not appear.
What it is not
A career total. Nobody's full discography is in the database yet, and albums arrive a few artists at a time. A producer's real number is higher than the one on this page, and it moves every time we add a record they worked on.
Producers
Most credited producers
Production credits, for artists other than themselves. 7,040 producers are indexed in all. Pick a decade to re-rank the board on the albums released in it; an album with no release year on file counts in the all-time view only.
Portraits come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited at the foot of this page. A name with no freely licensed photograph keeps its initials.
Filter by decade
Each count is the producers with a credit on an album released in that span. The bar under it measures that against the 7,040 producers indexed in all. A short bar means the catalog holds fewer albums from that span, not that the decade was quiet.
All time Top 50 producers by tracks produced, across every album in the catalog
Every album counted together, including the ones with no release year on file, which count here and in no decade view. That is 7,040 producers with at least one credit on somebody else's record.
-
1
Rick Rubin
606 tracks · 31 artists
- Red Hot Chili Peppers 137
- Johnny Cash 77
- System of a Down 66
- Tom Petty 45
- Slayer 41
- Linkin Park 39
- Neil Diamond 36
- The Strokes 18
- Weezer 16
- Slipknot 14
- Beastie Boys 13
- Josh Groban 13
- Kesha 13
- AC/DC 11
- Neil Young 11
- Santana 11
- Metallica 10
- The Smashing Pumpkins 8
- Eminem 6
- Limp Bizkit 5
- Ed Sheeran 3
- Kanye West 3
- Imagine Dragons 2
- Adele 1
- Doja Cat 1
- Jay-Z 1
- Juice WRLD 1
- Justin Timberlake 1
- Lady Gaga 1
- Lil Uzi Vert 1
- Wu-Tang Clan 1
-
2
Brendan O'Brien
296 tracks · 11 artists
-
3
Timbaland
248 tracks · 34 artists
- Missy Elliott 75
- Justin Timberlake 43
- Jay-Z 25
- Brad Paisley 16
- Aaliyah 12
- Kanye West 9
- Nelly Furtado 9
- Ludacris 6
- Beyoncé 5
- Madonna 5
- The Pussycat Dolls 5
- Michael Jackson 4
- Snoop Dogg 4
- Puff Daddy 3
- Rick Ross 3
- Rihanna 3
- Nas 2
- Omarion 2
- OneRepublic 2
- 50 Cent 1
- Alicia Keys 1
- Black Eyed Peas 1
- Drake 1
- Flo Rida 1
- GloRilla 1
- J. Cole 1
- Jennifer Lopez 1
- Lil' Kim 1
- Mariah Carey 1
- Mario 1
- Muse 1
- Rauw Alejandro 1
- Sam Smith 1
- TLC 1
-
4
Rob Cavallo
243 tracks · 9 artists
-
5
Greg Kurstin
240 tracks · 30 artists
- Sia 46
- Foo Fighters 30
- Kelly Clarkson 25
- Lily Allen 25
- Paul McCartney 13
- Pink 13
- James Blunt 12
- Ellie Goulding 11
- Adele 9
- Beck 9
- Gorillaz 9
- Halsey 8
- Gwen Stefani 4
- Jonas Brothers 4
- Celine Dion 3
- Donna Summer 3
- Kesha 2
- Kylie Minogue 2
- ASAP Rocky 1
- Carly Rae Jepsen 1
- Charli XCX 1
- Coldplay 1
- Harry Styles 1
- John Legend 1
- Katy Perry 1
- Kendrick Lamar 1
- Lana Del Rey 1
- Shakira 1
- Taylor Swift 1
- Twenty One Pilots 1
-
6
Max Martin
235 tracks · 30 artists
- Taylor Swift 34
- Ariana Grande 31
- The Weeknd 28
- Backstreet Boys 23
- Coldplay 21
- Katy Perry 21
- Britney Spears 18
- Pink 13
- Ed Sheeran 5
- Kesha 5
- Avril Lavigne 4
- Ellie Goulding 4
- Kelly Clarkson 3
- Lizzo 3
- Adele 2
- Childish Gambino 2
- Christina Aguilera 2
- Maroon 5 2
- Post Malone 2
- Zac Brown Band 2
- Carly Rae Jepsen 1
- Carrie Underwood 1
- Jennifer Lopez 1
- Justin Bieber 1
- Lady Gaga 1
- Lana Del Rey 1
- Lewis Capaldi 1
- NSYNC 1
- T.I. 1
- Usher 1
- 7
-
8
Joey Moi
215 tracks · 5 artists
- 9
- 10
- 11
-
12
Bob Rock
192 tracks · 9 artists
-
13
Terry Lewis
191 tracks · 9 artists
- 14
-
15
Keith Stegall
189 tracks · 4 artists
-
16
John Shanks
187 tracks · 12 artists
- 17
-
18
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
166 tracks · 7 artists
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
-
23
Jack Antonoff
152 tracks · 11 artists
- 24
- 25
-
26
Tony Brown
148 tracks · 5 artists
- 27
- 28
-
29
Metro Boomin on the roster
143 tracks · 17 artists
- 30
-
31
Howard Benson
141 tracks · 8 artists
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
-
36
Flood
132 tracks · 5 artists
-
37
Terry Date
129 tracks · 7 artists
-
38
Hit-Boy
127 tracks · 24 artists
- Nas 80
- Beyoncé 6
- Juice WRLD 5
- Snoop Dogg 5
- Travis Scott 4
- ASAP Rocky 3
- Mariah Carey 3
- Nicki Minaj 3
- Jennifer Lopez 2
- John Legend 2
- Ariana Grande 1
- Flo Rida 1
- H.E.R. 1
- Jay-Z 1
- Justin Bieber 1
- Kelly Rowland 1
- Kendrick Lamar 1
- Khalid 1
- Lil Baby 1
- Lil Wayne 1
- Mary J. Blige 1
- Rihanna 1
- The Pussycat Dolls 1
- Usher 1
- 39
-
40
Louis Bell
125 tracks · 20 artists
-
41
Hugh Padgham
125 tracks · 5 artists
- 42
-
43
Andrew Watt
121 tracks · 26 artists
- The Rolling Stones 26
- Post Malone 19
- Lady Gaga 14
- Paul McCartney 14
- Pearl Jam 11
- Miley Cyrus 8
- Justin Bieber 4
- Ed Sheeran 2
- Ellie Goulding 2
- Juice WRLD 2
- Lana Del Rey 2
- Madonna 2
- Young Thug 2
- Avicii 1
- Blink-182 1
- Calvin Harris 1
- Cardi B 1
- Charli XCX 1
- Dua Lipa 1
- Katseye 1
- Kygo 1
- Maroon 5 1
- Sam Smith 1
- The Chainsmokers 1
- Usher 1
- Zac Brown Band 1
-
44
Walter Afanasieff
121 tracks · 10 artists
-
45
Steve Lillywhite
118 tracks · 6 artists
- 46
-
47
Tainy
115 tracks · 16 artists
- 48
- 49
- 50
2020s Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released in the 2020s
3,251 producers have a credit on one of the 541 albums released in the 2020s, counted across their 7,720 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
-
1
Jack Antonoff
111 tracks · 9 artists
- 2
- 3
-
4
Hit-Boy
92 tracks · 9 artists
-
5
Rick Rubin
91 tracks · 9 artists
-
6
Metro Boomin on the roster
85 tracks · 10 artists
-
7
Louis Bell
80 tracks · 15 artists
-
8
Max Martin
80 tracks · 12 artists
-
9
Tainy
78 tracks · 13 artists
-
10
Carter Lang
66 tracks · 7 artists
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
-
16
Cirkut
55 tracks · 15 artists
-
17
Greg Kurstin
55 tracks · 9 artists
-
18
Mike Dean
55 tracks · 9 artists
-
19
Charlie Handsome
53 tracks · 9 artists
- 20
-
21
Kid Harpoon
51 tracks · 5 artists
- 22
-
23
Ilya
49 tracks · 6 artists
- 24
-
25
Wheezy
48 tracks · 10 artists
-
26
Dylan Wiggins
48 tracks · 6 artists
-
27
Tyler Johnson
46 tracks · 8 artists
-
28
Oscar Holter
46 tracks · 6 artists
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
-
33
Gregg Wattenberg
41 tracks · 4 artists
-
34
Federico Vindver
40 tracks · 7 artists
-
35
Jeff Gitelman
40 tracks · 7 artists
- 36
-
37
John Ryan
38 tracks · 10 artists
-
38
Jesse Shatkin
37 tracks · 6 artists
-
39
Gabe Simon
37 tracks · 5 artists
- 40
- 41
-
42
Eddie Benjamin
35 tracks · 4 artists
- 43
- 44
- 45
-
46
Blake Slatkin
34 tracks · 12 artists
-
47
BloodPop
34 tracks · 7 artists
- 48
-
49
Omer Fedi
32 tracks · 12 artists
- 50
2010s Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released in the 2010s
2,745 producers have a credit on one of the 765 albums released in the 2010s, counted across their 9,823 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
-
1
Greg Kurstin
165 tracks · 25 artists
- Sia 39
- Kelly Clarkson 25
- Paul McCartney 13
- James Blunt 12
- Foo Fighters 11
- Lily Allen 10
- Pink 10
- Beck 9
- Ellie Goulding 7
- Gwen Stefani 4
- Jonas Brothers 4
- Adele 3
- Celine Dion 3
- Halsey 3
- Kesha 2
- Carly Rae Jepsen 1
- Charli XCX 1
- Coldplay 1
- Harry Styles 1
- John Legend 1
- Katy Perry 1
- Kendrick Lamar 1
- Lana Del Rey 1
- Shakira 1
- Taylor Swift 1
-
2
Max Martin
109 tracks · 22 artists
- Taylor Swift 22
- Katy Perry 21
- Ariana Grande 17
- Britney Spears 6
- The Weeknd 6
- Kesha 5
- Pink 5
- Avril Lavigne 4
- Ed Sheeran 4
- Ellie Goulding 4
- Christina Aguilera 2
- Maroon 5 2
- Zac Brown Band 2
- Adele 1
- Backstreet Boys 1
- Carly Rae Jepsen 1
- Coldplay 1
- Jennifer Lopez 1
- Justin Bieber 1
- Lana Del Rey 1
- T.I. 1
- Usher 1
-
3
Rick Rubin
98 tracks · 12 artists
- 4
-
5
Joey Moi
78 tracks · 4 artists
-
6
Mike Dean
77 tracks · 13 artists
- 7
-
8
Rob Cavallo
74 tracks · 5 artists
- 9
-
10
Timbaland
72 tracks · 12 artists
-
11
Dr. Luke
66 tracks · 17 artists
- 12
- 13
- 14
-
15
Metro Boomin on the roster
58 tracks · 12 artists
-
16
John Shanks
58 tracks · 5 artists
- 17
- 18
-
19
Butch Walker
57 tracks · 7 artists
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
-
26
Ariel Rechtshaid
53 tracks · 10 artists
- 27
- 28
-
29
Southside
51 tracks · 8 artists
-
30
Benny Blanco
49 tracks · 19 artists
-
31
Jake Sinclair
49 tracks · 5 artists
- 32
-
33
Frank Dukes
48 tracks · 19 artists
- 34
- 35
-
36
Giorgio Tuinfort
47 tracks · 9 artists
- 37
- 38
-
39
Stargate
46 tracks · 14 artists
- 40
- 41
-
42
Louis Bell
45 tracks · 8 artists
-
43
Jay Joyce
44 tracks · 4 artists
-
44
David Foster
42 tracks · 4 artists
- 45
-
46
Jack Antonoff
41 tracks · 6 artists
- 47
- 48
-
49
Jake Gosling
40 tracks · 5 artists
- 50
2000s Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released in the 2000s
1,517 producers have a credit on one of the 681 albums released in the 2000s, counted across their 9,116 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
-
1
Rick Rubin
222 tracks · 11 artists
-
2
Brendan O'Brien
128 tracks · 7 artists
- 3
-
4
Timbaland
110 tracks · 21 artists
-
5
Howard Benson
104 tracks · 6 artists
-
6
David Foster
100 tracks · 4 artists
-
7
John Shanks
97 tracks · 8 artists
-
8
Rob Cavallo
93 tracks · 8 artists
- 9
- 10
-
11
Terry Lewis
82 tracks · 7 artists
-
12
The Neptunes
78 tracks · 21 artists
- 13
- 14
- 15
-
16
Dr. Dre on the roster
65 tracks · 8 artists
- 17
- 18
- 19
-
20
Josh Abraham
61 tracks · 5 artists
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
-
32
Steve Lillywhite
53 tracks · 4 artists
- 33
-
34
Scott Storch
49 tracks · 20 artists
- 35
- 36
- 37
-
38
Kanye West on the roster
44 tracks · 11 artists
- 39
- 40
-
41
Just Blaze
41 tracks · 10 artists
- 42
- 43
- 44
-
45
will.i.am on the roster
39 tracks · 15 artists
- 46
- 47
-
48
Stargate
38 tracks · 10 artists
- 49
- 50
1990s Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released in the 1990s
722 producers have a credit on one of the 442 albums released in the 1990s, counted across their 5,712 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
-
1
Rick Rubin
162 tracks · 6 artists
-
2
Brendan O'Brien
126 tracks · 5 artists
-
3
Tony Brown
98 tracks · 4 artists
- 4
- 5
-
6
Walter Afanasieff
78 tracks · 6 artists
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
-
15
Terry Lewis
60 tracks · 5 artists
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
-
25
David Foster
46 tracks · 7 artists
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
-
34
Dallas Austin
35 tracks · 5 artists
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
-
46
Sean Combs on the roster
31 tracks · 6 artists
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
1980s Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released in the 1980s
229 producers have a credit on one of the 279 albums released in the 1980s, counted across their 2,885 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
Before 1980 Top 50 producers by tracks produced on albums released before 1980
202 producers have a credit on one of the 492 albums released before 1980, counted across their 5,257 tracks. This view ranks the top 50 by tracks produced.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
-
43
Berry Gordy
40 tracks · 5 artists
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
The other half of the credit
The writers behind the words
Every record on this board arrived as somebody's lyric and somebody's melody first. 21,336 writers are indexed from the same credit rows, ranked the same way and filterable by the same decades.
Want to see what this does to a single artist's score? Put two of them side by side.
Photo credits
Every portrait on this page came from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain, and the licences ask that the photographer travels with the picture. 95 photos are used across the boards above, each one credited here. All of them are resized for the board and some are cropped to frame the face; nothing else about them has been changed.
- Noah "40" Shebib Andrew Louis · CC BY-SA 4.0
- A.B. Quintanilla AB Quintanilla · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Aaron Dessner Kim Metso · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Ahmet Ertegun William P. Gottlieb · Public domain
- Andrew Loog Oldham Craigbsnyder Craig B Snyder · CC BY 3.0
- Andrew Watt photoswelike · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Ariel Rechtshaid Wangtime · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Arif Mardin Alan Light · CC BY 2.0
- Barry Beckett IFSSFI · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Benny Blanco NickRewind · CC BY 3.0
- Berry Gordy Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel ... · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Bill Szymczyk Dmileson · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Blake Slatkin Daniel Prakopcyk · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Bob Clearmountain Xstephen95x · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Bob Johnston Julien Ménard · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Bob Rock Shayne Kaye · CC BY 2.0
- Boi-1da Joshua Shah · CC0
- Brian Eno How We Get To Next · CC BY 3.0
- Bruce Welch Ukphonebook · Public domain
- Butch Vig Valdo Howell · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Butch Walker Justin Higuchi from Los Angeles, CA, USA · CC BY 2.0
- Charlie Handsome Expectmoore · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Chet Atkins Gretsch Guitar News · Public domain
- Chris Kimsey UndercoverRecords · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Cirkut Maytruong · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dan Nigro Justin Higuchi · CC BY 2.0
- Daniel Lanois Juan Manuel Parra · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Dave Cobb Bryan Berlin · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dave Jerden DJWRONG · CC BY-SA 4.0
- David Bendeth Dmileson · CC BY-SA 4.0
- David Briggs Billenplum · CC BY-SA 4.0
- David Foster Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
- David M. Allen TotalTypo · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Don Law RattlerB · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Don Was Ron Baker · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Dr. Dre Ed Kavishe · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Dr. Luke Charles Lee · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Easy Mo Bee Montclair Film Festival · CC BY 2.0
- Felton Jarvis Jschaufe · CC BY-SA 3.0
- George Martin Adamsharp · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Giorgio Moroder Andy Witchger · CC BY 2.0
- Giorgio Tuinfort Notarealproducer · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Glenn Worf Adrian Buss · CC BY-SA 2.5
- Glyn Johns A&M Records · Public domain
- Greg Kurstin Peter Hill · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Harry Vanda Eric Koch for Anefo · CC0
- Hit-Boy Skripture Made This Remix · CC BY 4.0
- Howard Benson Thorblane · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Humberto Gatica GaticaTeam · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Irv Gotti Timothy M. Moore · CC BY 3.0
- Jack Antonoff Alex Lockett · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jake Gosling DavidPMaynard · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jimmy Jam LBJ Library · CC0
- Jay Joyce Ebiemedia2020 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jimmy Bowen Roulette Records · Public domain
- John Farrar Majalah Varianada · Public domain
- John Shanks slgckgc · CC BY 2.0
- Jon Landau Adam Chitayat · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jonathan Rado Caitlin Ison · Public domain
- Jonathan Singleton T Hano · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Josh Abraham Jpoindex · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Just Blaze fuseboxradio from USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
- KC Porter Jim Hagopian · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Kanye West David Shankbone · Public domain
- Kevin Churko Fscdesign · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Kid Harpoon Glastonbury Left Field · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Louis Bell Toglenn · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Mannie Fresh Erin Cazes · CC BY 2.0
- Max Martin Philip Romano · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Metro Boomin HOTSPOTATL · CC BY 4.0
- Nigel Godrich Raph_PH · CC BY 2.0
- Nile Rodgers PhilipRomanoPhoto · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Norman Granz William P. Gottlieb · Public domain
- Oscar Holter Peter Sundevall · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Pharrell Williams Ramsey Cardy · CC BY 2.0
- Phil Collins Will Ireland, Courtesy of Concord · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Quincy Jones Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0
- Rick Rubin jasontheexploder · CC BY 3.0
- Rob Cavallo Yodel Anecdotall / Yahoo! Inc. · CC BY 2.0
- Roy Thomas Baker Tere Baker · Public domain
- Ryan Tedder Burtontedder · CC0
- Scott Storch The Heavenly Center · CC BY 3.0
- Sean Combs Nicolas Richoffer · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Shawn Everett Webbrand · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Simon Climie Andwhatsnext at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Steve Lillywhite Philips Communications · CC BY 2.0
- Steven Van Zandt Bryan Berlin · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Tainy PhilipRomano · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Terry Lewis Angela George · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Timbaland Collision Conf · CC BY 2.0
- Tom Dowd Atlantic Records · Public domain
- Tony Visconti Menage a moi · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Walter Afanasieff Tamara Gee · CC BY 2.0
- Will.i.am Foundations World Economic Forum · CC BY 2.0
- Smokey Robinson Ewingmason · CC BY-SA 4.0