Gerry Casey's Interview with Dennis Bryon Graff

Making a Scene Presents - Your Recording Studio Is Sitting on a Gold Mine: How AI, Stems, Sync Licensing, and Music Asset Services Can Create New IncomeThe recording industry is changing, and independent recording studios have an opportunity to change with it. New AI audio tools, expanded production workflows, and a growing need for specialized music assets are opening doors to services that go far beyond recording, mixing, and mastering. For commercial studio owners struggling to keep their rooms booked, and home studio engineers looking to turn their equipment into a profitable business, the opportunity may be hiding inside recordings that have already been made.The Recording Studio Business Has Changed, but the Bills Have NotIf you have owned a recording studio for any length of time, you probably know that running a studio is as much about running a business as it is about making great records. You can have the best microphones, a beautiful mixing console, excellent monitors, and a room that sounds like a million dollars, but none of that guarantees that enough paying customers will walk through the door. Meanwhile, the electric company, insurance company, software developers, and landlord have absolutely no interest in whether you have sessions booked next week. They expect to be paid, and they are remarkably consistent about reminding you. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - Global Creator Royalties Reach $17.52 Billion, but the Numbers Tell a More Complicated StoryThe music industry is collecting more money than ever before, yet independent songwriters are still fighting to understand what they are owed, where their royalties are going, and why so much of the business remains hidden behind complicated reporting systems. A new global report reveals both the remarkable value of music and the growing importance of ownership, accurate data, and financial independence. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - The Music Industry Has Discovered Another Gold Mine. Somebody Should Tell the Musicians.Making a Scene Music Business Weekly WrapupThere is something almost comforting about the music industry's ability to announce a revolution every few weeks. Somewhere in a corporate boardroom, executives are celebrating another record-breaking quarter, technology companies are explaining how artificial intelligence will change music forever, and streaming services are working on exciting new ways to charge people for listening to songs. Meanwhile, an independent musician is loading a guitar amplifier into a twelve-year-old van, wondering whether the promoter remembered to include parking in the contract. The technology changes, the business models evolve, and the press releases become increasingly enthusiastic, but the economic realities facing working musicians remain stubbornly familiar. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Beet the SystemBeet the System is a Bay Area roots-rock collective built from deep musical friendship, fertile collaboration, and a healthy disregard for genre boundaries. The band grew out of the creative soil left behind by beloved Bay Area group Chemystry Set, carrying forward that project’s adventurous spirit while planting something looser, groovier, and distinctly its own. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Brings you Gerry Casey's Interview with Dennis Bryon GraffDennis Bryon Graff is an independent California singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and recording artist whose music is built around complete creative control. Based in Green Valley Lake, California, Graff writes, performs, records, mixes, and masters his own material, approaching each song as a fully self-contained creative project.Graff plays a wide range of instruments, including guitar, bass, keyboards, and programmed or keyboard-based drums. He also handles both lead and backing vocals, giving his recordings a distinctly personal character from beginning to end. Rather than separating songwriting from production, he treats the studio as another instrument, shaping every part of the final sound himself.His music moves through soft rock, blues, and rock-oriented songwriting, with an emphasis on melody, atmosphere, and straightforward storytelling. Graff’s catalog reflects an artist who has spent years writing and recording on his own terms, developing songs without the pressure to fit neatly into a commercial genre or production formula. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - Your Song Is Registered. But Is It Getting Paid? AI Uncovers a Hidden Problem in Music RoyaltiesAn AI investigation found recordings by Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, and other legendary artists connected to the wrong musical compositions. If some of the biggest catalogs in music have questionable data, what does that mean for independent musicians who have no army of lawyers watching their royalties?The Music Industry Has a Problem Hiding Behind a Green CheckmarkImagine spending months writing, recording, mixing, and releasing a song. You paid the musicians, covered the studio costs, hired someone to create the artwork, and probably spent more money promoting the release than you care to admit. You did everything the music business experts told you to do. You registered the song, obtained the proper identification numbers, entered your songwriting information, and delivered everything to your distributor. Your music is available around the world, and your royalty dashboard shows that the song is generating activity. Life is good, or at least as good as it gets when you're an independent musician trying to pay the electric bill.Now imagine discovering that somewhere inside the giant computer system responsible for tracking your royalties, your recording has been connected to a completely different song. Perhaps that other song has a similar title. Maybe it was written by another artist with a similar name. Perhaps some software made a connection that looked reasonable to a computer but would be ridiculous to anyone who actually listened to the music. Either way, your registration exists, your ownership information looks complete, and the system appears to be working. The only problem is that the recording and the composition may not belong together. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - You Built Your Own Artist Website. Does Facebook Think It Can Use What's On It?Meta's proposed business terms have sparked a fight over website scraping, artificial intelligence, and copyright. For independent musicians, the bigger question is whether using social media to promote your music should give a technology company new permissions over the creative work you own.You Own the Music. You Built the Website. Now Read the Fine Print. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with BEVBEV is a Minneapolis-based indie rock and power-pop project led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Niki Beverly, whose music moves between moody introspection, melodic guitar pop, and the restless energy of ’90s alternative rock. Built around swirling guitars, engaging rhythms, intricate harmonies, and emotionally direct lyrics, BEV creates songs that can sound immediately familiar before suddenly veering somewhere unexpected http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Brings you Gerry Casey's Interview with Ashesh DangolAshesh Dangol, widely known as the “Himalayan Hendrix,” is a Nepali blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader whose music fuses traditional blues feeling with psychedelic rock, Eastern influences, and the restless energy of a player who has spent decades pushing the genre beyond familiar borders. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - The Most Valuable Thing You Take Home From a Show Might Not Be the Money at the DoorWhy a $27 million investment in live-event marketing should change how independent artists think about touring, fan relationships, and building a sustainable music career.The Most Expensive Thing You Can Leave Behind at a GigPicture a familiar Saturday night. You're playing a packed little music venue about two hours from home. The band is tight, the sound is good, and the audience is responding to every song. The bartender is moving drinks like there's a national emergency, someone near the stage is recording the performance on a phone, and the bass player has somehow managed to find another cable that wasn't broken during soundcheck. By the final encore, everyone agrees it has been a great night.After the show, you sell a few shirts, sign a couple of CDs, pack the equipment, and settle up with the venue. Maybe you made a few hundred dollars after expenses. Maybe you made enough to cover gas and buy breakfast on the way home. Either way, the show is over, the money is counted, and everyone heads home with the satisfaction of knowing they put on a good performance.But here's the part that should bother every independent musician trying to build a career. Somewhere in that audience were people who genuinely connected with your music. Some would gladly come see you again. Others might buy a new album, subscribe to exclusive content, bring friends to your next show, or even help introduce you to another venue. Yet by the time you finish unloading the van, most of those people have disappeared into the night without any reliable way for you to reach them again. http://www.makingascene.org