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Lead producer vs associate producer

The differences between lead producers and associate producers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a lead producer and an associate producer. Additionally, a lead producer has an average salary of $77,717, which is higher than the $47,279 average annual salary of an associate producer.

The top three skills for a lead producer include customer service, food safety and sales floor. The most important skills for an associate producer are customer service, video content, and sales floor.

Lead producer vs associate producer overview

Lead ProducerAssociate Producer
Yearly salary$77,717$47,279
Hourly rate$37.36$22.73
Growth rate8%8%
Number of jobs11,3329,295
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age4040
Years of experience1212

What does a lead producer do?

A leader producer is a people-focused professional who provides production leadership by management and by example. These professionals help create development momentum, challenging inertia, and setting the right pace for the team members to achieve their goals. They work hand-in-hand with leads and departmental directors to make effective decisions and ensure a deep understanding of the right way of balancing competing priorities. Lead producers also enable efficient development and remove obstacles by making it easy for teams to access feature definition.

What does an associate producer do?

An associate producer is an entry-level one position in the television and film industry who assists senior producers in putting a TV program or film together. Associate producers are required to write, edit, and organize scripts and run a teleprompter in newscasts. Most of the assistant producers are required to obtain a bachelor's degree and become editors, writers, or actors to gain experience in television and film. Associate producers are also often assigned to tasks with operational duties such as generating financial reports or status updates.

Lead producer vs associate producer salary

Lead producers and associate producers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Lead ProducerAssociate Producer
Average salary$77,717$47,279
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $129,000Between $31,000 And $70,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-New York
Best paying company-Apple
Best paying industry-Media

Differences between lead producer and associate producer education

There are a few differences between a lead producer and an associate producer in terms of educational background:

Lead ProducerAssociate Producer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common majorCommunicationCommunication
Most common collegeStanford UniversityHarvard University

Lead producer vs associate producer demographics

Here are the differences between lead producers' and associate producers' demographics:

Lead ProducerAssociate Producer
Average age4040
Gender ratioMale, 67.9% Female, 32.1%Male, 61.2% Female, 38.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.8% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.4% Asian, 6.3% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.7% Asian, 6.4% White, 65.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage14%14%

Differences between lead producer and associate producer duties and responsibilities

Lead producer example responsibilities.

  • Manage image and video assets for KCOY website using Worldnow CMS.
  • Manage the compression of a massive amount of high quality HD files for post.
  • Hire and manage production resources including producers, audio engineers, writers, and QA contractors.
  • Manage on air giveaways and daily advertising metrics
  • Direct the outsourced QA efforts for the project.
  • Write and send weekly HTML email newsletter, create advertising materials for events.
  • Show more

Associate producer example responsibilities.

  • Lead the process of channel acquisition for YouTube channel properties.
  • Manage social media accounts using Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
  • Assist in editing final show to air, create video clips, select viewer emails and manage social media.
  • Collaborate with first and third party agencies and vendors to achieve time sensitive goals and satisfy marketing objectives for Xbox.com.
  • Oversee the content release process for GameHouse.com, scheduling DRM wrapping and managing the CMS and e-Commerce system for games release.
  • Manage client relations, music scores, user interface sound design and FMOD implementation (FM3) on Xbox exclusive titles.
  • Show more

Lead producer vs associate producer skills

Common lead producer skills
  • Customer Service, 28%
  • Food Safety, 23%
  • Sales Floor, 17%
  • Cleanliness, 8%
  • Inventory Control, 5%
  • Video Production, 3%
Common associate producer skills
  • Customer Service, 14%
  • Video Content, 12%
  • Sales Floor, 6%
  • Control Room, 5%
  • Instagram, 5%
  • Production Assistants, 5%

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