Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - Universal Music’s Stock Crash Is a Warning About Building a Career on Streaming Alone

The Music Business Had a Very Bad Day

On July 31, 2026, Universal Music Group had the kind of day that gets the attention of everyone in the music business. Shares of the world’s largest music company lost roughly one-quarter of their value in Amsterdam. It was Universal Music Group’s worst trading day since the company became publicly traded in September 2021. The decline erased approximately $10 billion from the company’s market value, based on the exchange rate at the time.

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Billy Branch

Billy Branch is one of the most respected living ambassadors of Chicago blues: an Emmy Award winner, three-time Grammy Award nominee, retired Grammy governor, Blues Hall of Fame inductee, educator, actor, narrator, humanitarian, and master harmonica player whose career has carried the sound of the blues around the world.

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Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Billy Price

Billy Price is a Blues Music Award-winning soul-blues vocalist whose powerful voice, deep musical roots, and decades-long career have made him one of the most respected singers in contemporary blues and soul music. Known for his commanding stage presence and emotionally rich vocal delivery, Price has built a career defined by authenticity, consistency, and a lifelong commitment to the music.

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Making a Scene Presents - Your Distributor Is Becoming Your Storefront: Private Equity, Consolidation, and the Fight for the Independent Artist’s Customer

For many independent artists, choosing a music distributor feels like choosing a mailbox.

You upload the song, type in the title, attach the artwork, enter enough names and numbers to make your eyes glaze over, and then wait for the music to appear on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, and the rest of the digital neighborhood.

The distributor delivers the package. The stores play the music. Royalties eventually trickle back. Everybody goes home.

That simple picture is becoming badly outdated.

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Clark Paterson

Clark Paterson does not write songs from a safe distance. He writes them from the middle of the wreckage: hospital rooms, court dates, bar shifts at Robert’s Western World, old farmhouses mid-restoration, garages cluttered with vintage car parts, and the strange emotional territory between heartbreak, survival, and redemption.

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