Making a Scene Presents

IPFS and the Decentralized Music Archive
How Indie Artists Can Host Their Entire Catalog, Serve Every Kind of Fan, and Build a Real Legacy

For decades, independent artists were handed advice that sounded helpful but quietly worked against them. Upload your music to platforms. Share a link. Trust the system to take care of the rest. On the surface, that sounds reasonable. In practice, it put your entire career inside systems you never...

Making a Scene Presents - AI Won’t Kill Music Careers—Starving Artists Will

As we head into the New Year, it’s time to take an honest look at one of the hottest and most misunderstood topics in the music industry right now. Every few months, the same cycle plays out. A scary headline appears. A new AI tool gets released. A video goes viral showing a fake song that sounds like a famous artist. Almost overnight, the mood shifts. The c...

If you’re an indie artist working from home, green screen might sound like something left over from old Hollywood movies. It can feel outdated, expensive, or disconnected from the way modern AI video works. That assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Green screen is actually one of the most important tools you can pair with AI today, especially if you want your music videos, branding visuals, and short-form content to look cinematic wi...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Levi Platero

Levi Platero is from the Navajo Nation in the Southwest United States. He first gained national attention with his family band, The Plateros, who emerged in 2004 as a blues-rock power trio often compared to artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Los Lonely Boys, and ZZ Top. The band spent more than a decade touring across the U.S., building a reputation for their high-energy live show...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Johnny Barracuda of the Soho Dukes

SOHO DUKES won’t admit it, but they’re having a very good time.

The band began in an unlikely way, not in a rehearsal room, but as a nineteenth-century–style drinking club roaming the pubs of London’s West End. On one of those legendary crawls, Bomber on bass and Johnny Barracuda on vocals crossed paths with Col “The Duke” Foster on rhythm guitar ...

Recording Vocals at Home: From Living Room to Radio-Ready

Recording vocals at home used to feel like settling. You’d stand in a bedroom or living room, sing into a mic, and then hope the computer could “fix it” later. That old approach is done. These days, an indie singer with a normal room, a few smart choices, and good habits can record vocals that sit right next to commercial releases without sounding out of place. Not because ho...

Making a Scene Presents - Why AI Video Finally Makes Sense for Indie Artists using AIVideo.com

For most independent musicians, the music video has always been the most expensive piece of the puzzle. You can record at home, distribute digitally, market on social platforms, but the moment visuals enter the conversation, the price jumps and control disappears. Crews, locations, schedules, favors, compromises. That is the old system. AI...

Making a Scene is reaffirming and expanding its commitment to the independent music community with a clear editorial mission: to continue delivering in-depth, practical journali/sm that helps artists take control of their careers instead of asking for permission from systems that were never designed to work in their favor. This commitment is not rooted in trends, hype cycles, or surface-level commentary.

It is grounded in the belief...

Making a Scene Presents - What the Hell Is an AI Agent and How can you Use it for your Music Business

Let’s strip the mystery away right now. An AI Agent is not a robot. It’s not a sci-fi brain. It’s not some Silicon Valley thing meant for billion-dollar companies. An AI Agent is simply a digital helper that can think through tasks, make decisions, and take action for you, without you babysitting every step.

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Johnny "V" Vernazza

Johnny “V” Vernazza was born in San Francisco and raised in Daly City, right in the middle of one of the most explosive music scenes in American history. In the 1960s, the Bay Area wasn’t just alive with music, it was overflowing. Clubs were everywhere, and it was normal to jam at four or five spots in a single night. Add legendary rooms like the Fillmore, the Avalon Ball...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Laura Rain

Detroit is a city built on grit. After decades of being written off, it is rebuilding itself as a powerful center of ideas, art, and creation. The city is once again attracting artists, innovators, and dreamers who bring new energy and purpose to the Motor City. Detroit didn’t lose its soul. It was just waiting for the right moment to rise again.

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Making a Scene Presents - Why the Music Industry Middle Class Matters More Than Superstars
The Lie We Were All Sold

From the very beginning, most musicians are taught the same story, whether anyone ever says it out loud or not. If you work hard enough, sacrifice enough, and stick it out long enough, someone with power will eventually notice you. A label. A manager. A gatekeeper of some kind. That moment, we’re told, is when your real...

Making a Scene Presents - The Power of Reference Tracks: Learning to Mix by Listening

If you want your mixes to sound more “pro” without buying more gear or plugins, this is the shortcut nobody talks about enough. Reference tracks. Not copying. Not stealing ideas. Just listening smarter.

Most indie artists think mixing is about twisting knobs until things sound good. That’s half true. The real skill is knowing what “good” even sounds...

Making a Scene Presents - Record Labels Should Be Terrified: Artists Are Building Their Own Economies

For most of music history, there was one road. If you wanted a career, you went through a major label. They had the money, the power, the distribution, and the connections. Artists were told this was the only way. Sign the deal. Give up ownership. Wait to get paid later. Maybe. That story is breaking down fast. Today, artists are qu...

Making a Scene Presents - Web3 Sync Licensing: Decentralizing the Music-to-Media Pipeline
The Old Sync Game Is Rigged (And Indie Artists Know It)

If you are an independent artist, you already know the truth about sync licensing, even if nobody ever said it out loud. The system is closed. The gates are tall. The same names show up again and again in film, TV, and video games. Music supervisors pull from trusted libraries, pre-cleared ...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Murali Coryell

Murali Coryell’s story is one of deep roots, hard-earned growth, and a lifelong connection to music that runs far deeper than a famous last name. His journey started before he could walk. He was held as a baby by Jimi Hendrix, lived with Carlos Santana, and grew up around dinner tables shared with Miles Davis. Music wasn’t something he chose later in life. It was the air he br...

Making a Scene Presents an interview with Robert Top Thomas

Robert “Top” Thomas comes straight out of the Florida backroads, where the air is thick, the nights are loud, and the blues still mean something. He’s a swamp blues musician in the truest sense, pulling his sound from muddy rhythms, raw guitar tones, and stories that feel lived in, not written for show. When Top sings, it sounds like a late-night confession on a screened-in...

Making a Scene Presents Ace Studio 2.0 Artist Edition: The Deep-Dive Review Every Indie Musician Needs

The walls of the old music industry are falling, and indie artists are finally getting the tools they deserve. For years, only big studios and big budgets had access to high-end vocal production, full instrument libraries, and teams of session singers ready to jump in at any moment. But now there’s Ace Studio 2.0 Artist Edition, a ...