Steve Albini is primarily known as a music producer, although he dislikes that term and prefers to be called a recording engineer. (If the record company insists, Albini feels more comfortable without any title at all.) Contrary to common practice, Albini does not receive royalties on each copy sold, mixed or recorded. He only charges a facility fee if the recording takes place in his home on his equipment, and if the recording takes place elsewhere, he charges on a sliding scale. For this reason, most record labels and producers consider him "difficult". Albini has about 1000 works that came out of his hands. Here is a far from complete list of musicians who worked with him: Pixies, Bert, Failure, The Frames, Nirvana, Chevelle, Nina Nastasia, PJ Harvey, Low, Blues Explosion, Mogwai, Bush, Cheap Trick, Neurosis, Zeni Geva, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mclusky, Fred Schneider, The Auteurs, Mono, Dead Man Ray, The Jesus Lizard, Whitehouse, Made Out of Babies, Songs: Ohia, The Breeders, Pegboy, Poster Children, High on Fire, Fugazi, F-Minus, Leftöver Crack, Slint, Page and Plant, Superchunk, Urge Overkill, Unearthly Trance, The Wedding Present, Zao, Joanna Newsom and Gogol Bordello, as well as several modern-hardcore bands such as California's Trash Talk and Amsterdam's Vitamin X.

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In 1993, Steve Albini published an essay, “The Problem with Music,” in which he expressed his belief that the modern music industry, which is controlled by large companies, recording, is ineffective, exploits musicians and produces low quality music. In November 2014, he spoke at the Face the Music conference in Melbourne. In his speech, he expressed his admiration for the Internet, which has destroyed this system and eliminated its imbalances. He talked about the benefits of the Internet, the end of the era of major record labels, copyright law and "a purple midget with open-ass pants."