system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What exactly is “music production”? What do producers do?
gpt
Two different kinds of things. In the pop/ hip-hop / electronica worlds, a ‘producer’ creates much of the sounds that you hear by using music software and hardware to make beats, play synthesizers, etc. In hip hop, a producer makes the beat that a rapper flows over. Ryan Lewis is Macklemore’s producer in this sense of the word. 

The other, older sense of the word is someone who oversees the recording process, coaches the musicians, watches over the budget, and may influence song selections, have opinions about how the songs are recorded and mixed, and what musicians should be brought in or extra parts to add. This kind of producer is band coach, therapist, genre specialist and logistician, but does not necessarily make any sounds themselves.

George Martin was this kind of producer for the Beatles.