Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - 25 Smart Media Products You Can Actually Build for Your Merch Table
How to Turn Ordinary Merch Into Physical-Digital Collectibles Without Setting Fire to the Tour Budget
The first generation of Smart Media Albums has arrived, and now comes the much more interesting question: what can an independent artist actually make with this stuff?
That question matters because nobody needs another technology looking for an excuse to exist. The music business has already provided artists with enough revolutionary tools that somehow require a monthly subscription, three passwords, a tutorial video and the patience of a Buddhist monk before anybody earns twelve dollars. Smart Media becomes interesting when we stop treating NFC as the product and start treating it as the invisible doorway inside a physical object a fan genuinely wants to own.

http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - The Album Is Not the Object Anymore
How Indie Artists Can Turn Almost Anything Into a Smart Media Collectible
For most of the recorded music business, the album had a fairly simple job description. It was the thing that contained the music. You bought the vinyl record, cassette or CD because that was how you got the songs, and the artwork, photographs and liner notes came along for the ride as part of the package. Digital music separated the songs from the object, and streaming finished the job by making the physical carrier unnecessary for listening. That sounds like terrible news for merchandise until you realize that the object has now been freed from its old job and can take on a much more interesting one: instead of merely carrying the recording, it can carry the relationship between the artist and the fan.

http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - We Solved Music Distribution. We Forgot to Solve Making a Living.
There was a time when one of the biggest problems facing an independent musician was simply getting a record into the marketplace. You could make a great album, spend money you probably didn't have recording it, press a few hundred CDs, load the boxes into your car and then discover that most of the record business had no particular interest in helping you put those CDs anywhere people might actually buy them. Distribution was a gate, and the people standing in front of that gate usually wanted to know who your label was, who your distributor was and whether somebody more important than you had already decided that you mattered. Independent musicians spent decades trying to get around that system, and eventually technology did something rather wonderful: it kicked a large hole in the wall.

http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Wren and Wilde
Wren + Wilde is a Minnesota folk and Americana band led by singer-songwriter Hilary Yoder, whose distinctive “smoke folk” sound blends emotional honesty, roots-driven songwriting, and a dark, smoldering atmosphere that sets the group apart within the Midwest music scene.
At the heart of Wren + Wilde is a deep respect for storytelling. Their songs are built around lived experience, human connection, and the emotional tension between hope and heartbreak. Rich harmonies, earthy instrumentation, and Yoder’s expressive songwriting give the music an intimate quality, while the band’s grit and dynamic range keep it from ever feeling delicate or overly polished.

http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Jason Reilly Owner of Jamboja Studios
Jason Reilly is an Irish musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and studio owner whose work sits at the intersection of performance, recording, and artist development. Based in Castleblayney, County Monaghan, Reilly is closely associated with Jamboja Studios, a private residential recording facility created to give musicians the time, space, and equipment to focus completely on making music.

http://www.makingascene.org