In the profession registry in Russia, producers were only included at the end of the last century, but that does not mean they did not exist before. Producers have always been around, just called by different names, such as film director or studio director. One of the first music producers in our country was Ippolit Pavlovich Rapgof. For a long time, he taught at a music school in St. Petersburg until he became acquainted with the gramophone. This innovation inspired him with a commercially viable idea: he organized paid listening sessions for records. Soon there was a demand for their purchase, but the problem was the lack of recordings in the Russian language.

Ippolit Pavlovich was the first to lead the recording of musical works from the Russian repertoire. Initially, the recordings were anonymous and only contained the title of the piece, as the artists were afraid to take risks. However, inspired by success, Rapgof began individual recordings. Difficulties arose here: singers were nervous in the unfamiliar studio, made mistakes, and mixed up words. Each new take cost money, and sponsors did not want to overpay for unsuccessful recordings. Then Rapgof promised that poor recordings would not be sold. But investors decided otherwise and put all records up for sale. This shocked the singers and caused a scandal, for which Rapgof had to justify himself in the press.

Nevertheless, the scandal only fueled public interest, and all the recordings sold out quickly. People became interested in the names of the performers, and they quickly gained popularity. In the early 20th century, Ippolit Rapgof began promoting Russian culture abroad, for example, organizing performances by stars of the Mariinsky Theatre in Germany. However, his life ended tragically: according to some reports, in 1918 he participated in an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Rostov-on-Don, was captured, and executed.