T.H.E Interview – Gytis (Founder of The Ghost Production)

Ghost production has been a taboo subject in the global electronic music scene for quite some time.

Artists who do employ the services of ghost producers refuse to acknowledge it, for fear of being accused of cheating by their fans.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that ghost production isn’t just an opportunity for someone who wants to be an artist and does so by purchasing music that is made by someone else, but it’s also a huge opportunity for producers to earn probably more by selling their tracks as ghost production, compared to actually signing them with labels and the revenue that follows as a consequence.

In order to better understand and analyse this age-old debate, we had a chat with Gytis, the founder of The Ghost Production website, on how this particular service is something that is worth being spoken about, and how it’s time to embrace Ghost Production as one of the many opportunities to earn legitimate cash, that the music industry has to offer.

T.H.E – Hey Gytis! Welcome to T.H.E – Music Essentials. How has 2018 been for you?

Gytis – Hi, Thank you! 2018 was the best musical year so far for me! In the beginning, of 2018 I started a ghost production company that has a huge success already., Also I had a record deal with Warner Music company for my own track release that has over 5.7 millions streams on Spotify already. Also signed with a booking agency. So 2018 was a success I guess.

T.H.E – You are the founder of The Ghost Production platform, for electronic music. Why did you feel the need to start this platform?

Gytis – Right. Apart from my own artist career, I was ghost producing before already, but mainly for POP artists. Then in 2017, I tried some ghost production platforms, it was great because I had the freedom to produce whatever genre I want and get paid! But these platforms I’ve tried had very bad customer service, everything was slow, it took forever to get tracks uploaded and to get paid, I even needed to ASK for the payments. Also, the percentage they took from sales was ridiculous. So I started my own ghost production platform, In the beginning, I was just selling my own tracks and also ghost producing custom tracks. But over time more and more producers started to upload their tracks in my website.

T.H.E – In a nutshell, how would you summarise the kind of services these platforms have to offer?

Gytis – These kinds of platforms can be useful for music producers, artists, DJs, singers and so on. It’s not a secret that most incomes are from playing live shows, not from the record streams and sales. But it’s hard to get booked by festivals and clubs. Because of the technology evolving it’s getting easier and easier to produce music and DJ. So there is a big competition out there. That is why I started to ghost produce back then. It’s a great solution if you’re not famous but you can produce quality music. After I graduated from college I didn’t even need to work with my profession – information technology. Without ghost producing, I wouldn’t be able to do that, because incomes from my own track releases were very small. So I would have to work a regular job and have no time for music, I wouldn’t be able to improve myself as a music producer. Ghost producing helped me a lot, not only for the financial situation but also to improve my producing skills.

Also, it’s good for already famous artists and DJs who are intensively traveling and playing gigs and have no time for producing music. Nowadays it’s not enough to DJ if you want to be successful, but obviously not all DJs can produce music, a lot of people are confusing these professions, DJing and producing music is not the same.

Moreover, we offer pop/rap/hip-hop instrumentals so it’s perfect also for singers and rappers. The great thing that you don’t need to share royalties, because once you purchase a ghost produced track you own all rights and 100% royalties.

T.H.E – What are your views on ‘ghost production’ as a whole, and what would you say to artists/fans in general who feel negatively about this concept?

Gytis – I don’t see why it could be bad how some people think. It would be naive to think that all popular singers/artists write and produce songs by themselves. Everyone knows that they have music producers who make tracks for them. But when people hear that DJ/Artist has a music producer – they got very mad.

T.H.E – For upcoming producers, why should they buy tracks on your platform and not focus on making their own music?

Gytis – I think it’s a win-win situation, there are some music producers who produce amazing music but not interested in playing live gigs and there are people who can DJ and play in front of big crowds but don’t know how to produce. Not everyone is capable of both, as I mentioned it’s two different professions.

I wouldn’t say that all upcoming producers should buy tracks and forget about producing for themselves. But it can help if you need to release your next track but you don’t have the time or just having a writer’s block. Also, you get all stems files and even project file so you can also learn from it a lot or edit it for your needs, put your own touch.

T.H.E – Which countries have had the most purchases from your platform, and what insight do you draw from it?

Gytis – Here are the top 10 countries by sales from 2018:

1. United States
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. Netherlands
5. India
6. United Kingdom
7. Canada
8. Belgium
9. Norway
10. Iceland

So in conclusion, the United States is the most popular in purchasing ghost produced tracks.

T.H.E – Thanks Gytis! Wish you the very best.

Gytis – Thank you for having me, was a pleasure to chat with you!