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Lead producer vs freelance producer

The differences between lead producers and freelance 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 a freelance producer. Additionally, a lead producer has an average salary of $77,717, which is higher than the $62,218 average annual salary of a freelance producer.

The top three skills for a lead producer include customer service, food safety and sales floor. The most important skills for a freelance producer are music videos, news stories, and video content.

Lead producer vs freelance producer overview

Lead ProducerFreelance Producer
Yearly salary$77,717$62,218
Hourly rate$37.36$29.91
Growth rate8%8%
Number of jobs11,3329,703
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
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 a freelance producer do?

The responsibilities of a freelance producer are so broad that they can be tricky to define. Broadly, a freelance producer is responsible for finding, launching, and completing a project. They primarily handle logistics pertaining to the creation of various pieces of content. This content may include television shows, advertisements, or audio/video presentations. They also manage finances, keep the production within the allocated budget, and hire all key staff, crew members, and post-production teams. They may also have to scout for shoot locations.

Lead producer vs freelance producer salary

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

Lead ProducerFreelance Producer
Average salary$77,717$62,218
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $129,000Between $33,000 And $113,000
Highest paying City--
Highest paying state--
Best paying company--
Best paying industry--

Differences between lead producer and freelance producer education

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

Lead ProducerFreelance Producer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 61%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common majorCommunicationPhotography
Most common collegeStanford UniversityHarvard University

Lead producer vs freelance producer demographics

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

Lead ProducerFreelance Producer
Average age4040
Gender ratioMale, 67.9% Female, 32.1%Male, 58.7% Female, 41.3%
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, 7.8% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 6.3% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage14%14%

Differences between lead producer and freelance 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

Freelance producer example responsibilities.

  • Drive engagement by managing the brand's YouTube channel, as well as all other social media outlets.
  • Manage production shoots for image campaigns and monthly communications meetings for CNN newsroom and internal in-house creative services department.
  • Manage creative release process working closely with site merchandising, content engineering, release engineering, QA, buyers and marketing.
  • Manage the QA process including test/debug cycles and platform compliance/compatibility testing.
  • Produce for Chubb s website, YouTube, Facebook and on DVD.
  • Help maintain social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.
  • Show more

Lead producer vs freelance producer skills

Common lead producer skills
  • Customer Service, 28%
  • Food Safety, 23%
  • Sales Floor, 17%
  • Cleanliness, 8%
  • Inventory Control, 5%
  • Video Production, 3%
Common freelance producer skills
  • Music Videos, 20%
  • News Stories, 6%
  • Video Content, 5%
  • Video Production, 4%
  • Live Events, 4%
  • Photography, 4%

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