We are the music makers

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  • GST and income tax for Indian musicians: a practical starter guide

    Gigs, session fees, streaming payouts and brand work are all taxable income in India, and past a certain turnover your music services also fall under GST. This guide explains the GST registration threshold for services, how presumptive taxation can simplify income tax for some music professionals, which return form usually applies, and the records that make all of it easy. It is a starting point to take to a chartered accountant, not tax advice.

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  • IPRS and PPL India explained: who collects for your song, who collects for your recording, and what changed in 2025

    India splits music licensing between the song and the recording. IPRS speaks for composers, lyricists and publishers; PPL India licenses sound recordings assigned to it by labels. A 2025 Delhi High Court ruling questioned how PPL may license without being a registered copyright society. This guide explains the two sides and what an independent artist should do, using the Copyright Act text and court records read on 25 Oct 2026.

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  • Kick and bass relationship: tuning, phase and note choice before you reach for EQ

    When kick and bass fight, most fixes reach for EQ and sidechain. This guide works one level earlier: tune the kick to the song, pick bass notes that leave it room, and check the phase between the two so they add up instead of cancelling. It complements our low-end mixing and sidechain guides. Pitch maths checked against ISO 16 and the MIDI tuning convention, DAW steps against the Ableton Live 12 manual, on 25 Oct 2026.

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  • The laptop-only home studio: how to make finished music with one computer and headphones

    You can write, record, mix and release a track with nothing but a laptop and a pair of headphones. This guide covers which free or cheap software to start with, how to set the laptop up so it does not fight you, how to record without an interface, how to mix on headphones, and when an upgrade is actually worth buying. Prices and loudness figures were checked on 25 Oct 2026.

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  • Layering drums: how to stack kicks and snares without mud

    Layering means playing two or more drum sounds as one hit, each doing a different job. Done well, it gives a kick both weight and click; done carelessly, it gives you a louder, blurrier version of what you had. This guide covers choosing layers by job, fixing phase and timing, filtering each layer to its range, and building a layered kit in a drum rack, using Sound On Sound and the Ableton Live manual, read on 25 Oct 2026.

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