Man, I love it. Everyone here is making valid points without going for the jugular (sp?). Anyway, I completley believe that the producer - artist relationship is mutually beneficial. It's cool to be working on a track and be like "Man my artist _____ would kill this track." And then actually be able to see the idea come to life. I have something of a natural talent for music, and when I first started recording artists over my tracks, it would drive me insane when certain stuff that came naturally to me required some coaching on my part to get them to do right.
Honestly, as a producer, if you're gonna deal with someone who's wet behind the ears, be ready to coach them through stuff like voiceovers, ad-libs and how to stay on tone when you have to punch vocals. I've recorded with a gang of people who were recording for the first time, and I have never seen someone in that situation just walk into the booth and kill it. Just like anything else there's a slight learning curve to it, and if you as the producer, learn how to make the artist comfortable and get the best out of them, repeat business won't really be a problem.
