Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart.

Before we delve into the wonderful world of touring logistics, strategies, great ideas that can help, bad ideas that won’t, and a few stories along the way; perhaps we should ponder if, with all of the technological advancements every day AND (for f’s sake) the price of gas!, If it’s even necessary to tour anymore?

Yes it is, you know it is, stop smoke-screening you lazy bastard and get with it!!

You don’t need to look far for an example of how important it is to get out there. Do you think for one second that, if it wasn’t essential, that politicians ever leave home? Most of those guys can’t even bring themselves to think about other people, let alone touch them—(unless it’s on the ass). So the only reason they are out there is: 1. More ass, or 2. Their advisors told them that they had to, showed them the evidence, and pushed them out the door. Think about this the next time you see one of them getting on the ‘truth bus’ or whatever crap they are selling this week.

Every single element affecting your career and your ability to continue is helped by touring:

• Anyone anywhere is more likely to check out your MySpace page if they see you are coming to town.

• Any promoter in any other city is more likely to give you a gig if they see you are performing in other parts of the country.

• People on the web write about things that happened at shows they went to, not shows that didn’t happen, that they couldn’t go to…

• Your manager, if you have one, will prioritize you over another (maybe better?) band because you are working harder (unless the other band is Radiohead).

• You can be the eyes and ears for your label, if you have one... or for other bands too lazy or frightened to leave their home base. You can tell them where responses, crowds, sound-systems are good or where ‘promoters’ are baaaaaad.

• Your agent, if you have one, will pay more attention if you show him you are prepared to perform seven shows a week. That means if he can get you to a point where you are earning $1,000 a night, then he could earn $1,000 a week.in commissions. (good job agents don’t care about money huh!)

• The record store (if you can find one) is more likely to stock your music and put up a poster.

• Everyone from the local blogger to the local paper is more likely to review your CD or mention your show.

• You can leave behind promotional beacons… t-shirts etc, put up stickers in bathrooms, graffiti in the dressing room and generally ‘leave your mark’

• Your album (or collection of songs) will be better because you’ll have direct and immediate feedback from a real, live audience; either smiling and jumping up and down because the songs you thought were great really are, or throwing things because you are delusional and your songs are shit. Either way, this is way more valuable than a bunch of people on your MySpace page plugging their own albums.

• It is a great opportunity to triumph over your shyness (eventually without the aid of alcohol) and polish your people meeting skills.

• This is stuff YOU can do – (while you are waiting for all of the people who said they were going to do something to come through for you.)

• You are creating more of your own content, audio, video and mythical…. you can’t release a Live in Paris (Texas) album if you don’t go and play there!

And, very importantly:

• The more you play, the better you get!

• You can meet GREAT, enthusiastic people who can help you next time around

• You can discover wonderful things in other town’s thrift stores

In addition to all of this – many other things will just become blindingly obvious to you as you begin this journey. You will realize when the guitarist pukes on you for the fourth time that maybe his drinking is becoming a problem – you can reflect further on this as you pull out pieces of sweetcorn and carrots from the pockets of your jeans at the laundromat.

What does all of this mean? How will it really help you? Well, all of these bits of information are little bricks in your wall (I use that analogy a LOT) but, here’s an example of what you’ll be getting from this column to leave you with:

A simple decision for a band in the mid-west – between heading out to the west coast or staying closer to home but still hitting major markets – the difference in gas costs alone - $1200. That’s the tour support that the label that wouldn’t sign you, wouldn’t give you!

Ok, now, do I have your attention???

GREAT – if you want to start reading up on this, taking control of as much of your career as you can – then there is a great deal on my e book here or you can go to Amazon and get it here.

Martin Atkins

Paul Chodirker is an entertainment lawyer at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto. He is also featured on the “law boys” radio segment which can be heard every Wednesday night on the Toronto-based radio station, 102.1 The Edge.

So You Still Wanna Do The Show Business? 

The title to this article comes from a lyric in a song called, “Show Business”, by A Tribe Called Quest. It’s one of the best songs that deals with the business of the music industry. This article deals entirely with the business side of having your music featured in a film. In the first part of this article, we dealt with the legal side of licensing music in film. Now, it’s time to negotiate the deal.

As stated in the first part of this article, the producer of a film is going to need a synchronization and master-use license if they want to use the master recording of a song in the picture. So, who issues these licenses?

• Synch licenses are issued by the entity that owns the musical composition; usually the composer, or more often, a music publishing company. However, synch licenses can also be obtained from various licensing agencies such as the Harry Fox Agency in the US, or the CMRRA (Canadian Mechanical Reproduction Rights Agency) in Canada. These agencies may have the non-exclusive right to issue the license on behalf of the publisher or owner. Many music publishers use these groups to administer the reproduction rights of the copyright holder in the underlying composition.

• Master-use licenses are issued by the entity that owns the master recording (typically a record company, or the artist…if they’re lucky).

So, how much will it cost the producer to acquire a synch and master-use license? This question is difficult to answer because the cost of licenses will be dictated by market value, the popularity of the song, and the budget of the production. A song can be purchased for use in a film for anywhere from $1 to over $50,000. It’s not uncommon for a publisher to charge a synchronization fee of $15,000. However, film producers are becoming much more savvy when it comes to licensing songs in their films. As discussed previously, many of the most popular soundtracks feature independent artists that have little or no exposure to the public-at-large. The fact is, indie music is becoming increasingly popular for use in films because they’re cost effective and provide the movie with cultural cache…it’s cooler to use a song from the new album by Band of Horses than it is to use a song by Def Leppard (with the exception of using “Pour Some Sugar On Me” in Coyote Ugly).

Far too many indie musicians and publishers care about the money they might receive from licensing their music in a film. There are several advantages to putting less emphasis on the money and simply getting your song in the picture. Some of these advantages, include: 

1. Exposure/publicity – having your song included in a film is one of the best ways to expose your music to a larger audience. This is especially important if you’re lucky enough to have your song released on a soundtrack.
2. Public Performance Royalties – Worldwide exposure of your song (if you wrote it), whether it be in theatres, or free/pay TV, will mean public performance royalties from ASCAP in the US and SOCAN in Canada.
3. Loyalty – if you negotiate a fair deal with a producer, the chances are very good that he or she will come back to you for more songs.

Quick. What was the song used for the end credits for the major blockbuster movie, “Wedding Crashers”? It was a song called “Aside” by Winnipeg’s Weakerthans. Surprising, isn’t it? The paradigm is shifting and indie artists need to get on board because no matter how obscure your band might be, there is always a place for music, popular or not, in film.

So, once you’ve agreed on a price and you’re ready to see your name in lights, what should you be weary of when signing the synch and master licenses? This topic will be included in part 3 of this article.

Since co-founding Bloodshot Records in Chicago in 1994, co-owner Rob Miller
has dirtied his hands in all aspects of keeping an independent label afloat
in a world beset by American Idol, illegal downloading and a collapsing
economy.  Before that he lived in and around Detroit where he was a middling
music writer, college DJ and Production Manager catering to the demands of
everyone from GWAR to the Pet Shop Boys.

We all like music, right?  We love it, as a matter of fact.  It’s the art form that speaks to us on a profound level, connects us to the greater world and taps into some of our most deeply held feelings and beliefs.  Many of you, like myself, have used music to aid in your personal journeys, have let it expand and define your outlooks and, yes, if we want to get all mawkish (don’t worry, no one is looking) let it touch our souls.

The Sex Pistols told me to GET PISSED and I took it to heart, I looked around me and saw that I didn’t have to take what was being shoved down my throat and follow someone else’s rules.  I felt Otis’ pain in the lapping bass line of “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” when I moved to the Bay Area on an ill-fated follow-the-girlfrie-out-west fiasco.  Man,  that was lonely.  When the Mekons dared me to “destroy my safe and happy life, before it is too late” it was like a jagged rock being thrown into a pond, the ripples spreading through my life to this day.

Even an entire generation of trust-funded, junk-bond-traders-to-be were entranced by the rallying of Give Peace a Chance.

Music means something.  Right? RIGHT?

When I was at college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there was a pizza place that would, at the end of the night, throw all the unclaimed pizzas away.  Being right in the prime years of our stick-it-to-the-man, Raskolnikov-light poverty we’d stake out the dimly lit alley by the dumpster and make off with whatever pizzas were discarded. 

Toppings?  Size? Square? Round? Who cared!

Fresh? Hot?  Slices missing? Misshapen pies that had slid to one side of the box?

Didn’t worry about it…

Bags of doughy, greasy bread sticks? Bonus!

Soon word spread, and, like an army of Morlocks, a growing horde of students descended on the dumpster for their rightful repast.  Every evening the garbage gourmands had to stake out their space earlier, or be craftier with their timing.  Eventually, complaints about noise, concerns over health and safety and liability led the place to start locking the dumpster.

Far from being discouraged, the hungry rabble of the night merely moved on to the next pizza joint.  Brand loyalty? Hah!  Free pizza is free pizza.  Furthermore, since the alluring patina of OUTLAW had been attached to these raids, the pepperoni was that much spicier, the rubbery cheese that much more crema della bell’italia, the bland sauce that much saucier.  Every night was a potential pizza night and the efforts to obtain this free bonanza became more and more elaborate as security and competition heightened.  Soon, there were entire message boards dedicated to the wheres and whens and howtos of dumpster diving.  No restaurant was spared.  Hell, it didn’t even matter if we were hungry; it was the getting that mattered.

Sound familiar?

Just because we CAN have everything, should we?  Just because we CAN download entire bodies of work with a couple of mouse clicks are we experiencing them  Just because we watch Citizen Kane on an iPhone, does that make us appreciate artistry?  Does anything sink in? Can it sink in during an age when the expectation and a smug environment of entitlement insists it is all for our taking? Will Lollapalooza 2019 be celebrating the cultural impact of the Arctic Monkeys?  Is mere accumulation an end?

How do we craft an identity out of this?  “Everything” is not a self; it is not a journey of revelation and awareness.  There’s no soul in it.  The music becomes ephemeral, a mere soggy box.  If the Vampire Weekend dumpster gets locked or too crowded, we’re on to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart before the anchovies cool. The bins behind Snow Patrol and the Strokes seem like positively ancient ruins (like my brother TOTALLY dove there like forever ago), trite and dismissed.

I dunno.  Maybe these are just the rantings of a crank.  Maybe it’s a good thing that the only ways for musicians to ply their trade these days is to pray for getting a cut on Gray’s Anatomy or a plum slot at the latest “it” festival.  Maybe the effects of Twitter and MySpace, which make old fashioned Lester Bangsy criticism seem like a Russian novel, are a healthy democratizing of the hype machines.  Maybe it's a boon to creativity and artistic expression.   But maybe it’s something to think about the next time you’re at some mega-event with scores of bands, loads of “lifestyle” booths selling “ethnic” crafts and hemp shit all underwritten by phone companies and multinational retailers trying to get into your pockets.  You've spent $100 plus just to walk through the gate, but somehow putting a value on the music itself is outré. Way to stick it to the cruel overlords who’ve kept music from its rightful place in our earbuds!  Now, let’s play some ‘sack and enjoy that rad new energy drink!

 Ask yourself this, though:  Am I a music fan, or am I indiscriminately rooting around dumpsters and anything’ll do?  Is the event, the doing, what I carry with me?  Will I wake up in the morning with a deeper appreciation and insight to my life and my world, or with just a goatee of grease and a vile rumbling in my gut?

John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.

A Question from Lauren

John,
I have a question. One time I read that Lennon and McCartney really fought on who should sing McCartney's "Helter Skelter". Lennon thought he would sound better singing the song (I agree totally), but because it was McCartney's song he won the battle and sang the song.

Hearing this story made me think of you guys. I always wondered how Exene and you shared the singing duties. When you both wrote a song did you ever argue about who should sing it? Did you ever sing her songs? Did she ever sing your songs? What about deciding on harmonies, it seems like such a delicate decision, but you guys nail it.

Anyways, I would appreciate the inside info.
Lauren Melton.

What Would John Doe Do?

Lauren,
  Good story about Helter Skelter.  There was never any disagreement btwn Exene & I.  I wrote "Come Back To Me" for her & she wrote "The Have Nots" for me.  We have so much respect for each other & our unique talents, it's usually obvious who will sing what.  Most of the time whoever wrote the lyrics, will be closer to the feelings & ideas expressed & will deliver it best.  Also we always apply harmonies in unconventional ways that still serve the song.
hope that helps
and as always thanks for writing,
JD

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com.

The goal of the Indie Artist X Project is to develop a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy, prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget that can be implemented by any artist who has the inclination to follow it. About.com Music Careers, Artists House Music, Hypebot, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com and Revolution Number 3 have banded together to create this community based music marketing plan.  We will be working with one anonymous artist to design and implement this music marketing plan then track and report the actual results over a four month period. To keep up with the latest news on the IAXP follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

Below are the Indie Artist X Project statistics for the month of August:

August Stats:

Band Metrics Score:          233 / Silver

Website Unique Visitors:    990

Website Total Visitors:       1189

Website Sales – CD’s:        $0.00

Website Sales – MP3’s:      $29.97

Website Sales – Merch:      $0.00

Fan List:                                760

Live Show Attendance:       785

Live Show Net Sales:          $2,590.00

Live Show CD Sales:          $315.00

Live Show Merch Sales:     $530.00

Distribution Sales:               Waiting on Report

Licensing Royalties:             $0.00

BMI Royalties:                      $0.00

Soundexchange Royalties:  $0.00

MySpace Royalties:             $0.00

Some notes about August’s IXAP reporting

·         Band Metrics measures activity across several web properties where IAX maintains a presence including iLike, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Band Metrics also measures terrestrial radio play but hasn’t picked up any spins to date for IAX. The Band Metrics score for August moved to 233 from 183 in July.

·          Direct CD and Merch sales for August were $0.00. The website ecommerce store is not yet set up for CD and merchandise sales since IAX is still waiting on the artwork files from the indie label that released the last two records.

·         Distribution for the indie label that released IAX’s last two records is handled through InGrooves. The label has agreed to allow Indie Artist X to work directly with the distributor moving forward but that transition has not yet taken place so we don’t yet have direct reporting access to distribution sales.

·         Despite regular IAX plays and streams on Pandora, Last.fm, MySpace, iLike and Imeem there are still no royalties reported or paid from Soundexchange or BMI.