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. Be sure to catch Martin’s presentation at this year’s SXSW Music Festival on Wednesday, March 18th at 4:30 pm in Room 18 of the Austin Convention Center.

If you’re going to SXSW to get signed, you should know from reading my last blog post that it’s not going to happen. If you’re going to SXSW to get crazy ass drunk every night instead working your crazy ass off networking for five sleepless nights, stay home and sit on your crazy ass.

SXSW is your chance to meet people in person, make an impression, and show everyone how hardworking, nice, charismatic, and wholesome you and your band really are. Are you playing a showcase? Ask yourself why aren’t you playing two, or three, or four? It’s quadruple the work, but also quadruple the chances that you’ll meet someone like Josh Maloney of Dean Guitars who works in Artist Relations or impress someone that knows someone that knows someone that…..well, you know.

Dean Guitars hosted a Tour:Smart event last week at their headquarters in Tampa. My friends Curse Mackey and Josh Maloney began the afternoon with a reality check on sponsorships. Josh had some seemingly obvious tips for anyone looking for a sponsorship relationship with a company. Check out this video of Josh:



Nothing is obvious and anything that is, bears repeating – so watch and listen!

After my talk about how to make money on the road, Josh and Curse gave everyone an amazing tour of the factory.  It was like something off the Discovery Channel!

If one message resonated at Dean, it was that getting endorsements and sponsorships isn’t easy. SXSW is not a bad place to start. BUT before you run up to every rep from an equipment manufacturing company to present your press kit SXSW Networking Tips by Martin Atkins, follow some basic rules!

Aim Low – Get High

Why not look for a guitar string endorsement before you shoot for something larger? Consider what you can do for a smaller boutique company first. Ask not what a larger company can do for you!

Discounts can be just as good as free

You might find that an artist price deal on the small stuff like drumheads, sticks, or strings will save you WAY more money than getting a guitar or a drum kit from a large company. And, really, honestly - this probably isn’t going to happen. You have to be doing hundreds of dates each year to hundreds and hundreds of people to make that level of sponsorship a possibility.

Sponsors are your peers!

One thing I have seen consistently from Josh, the guys at Jagermeister, Pearl, Presonus Audio, and Trueline drumsticks is that they all care A LOT about music and the people making it. If they are in a position to help an artist either in good times or in bad (as long as you are passionate and work your nuts off) they will do as much as they can.

Adam Grayer, who runs the Jager band program also offers some great tips:

• Know a little about the company and know exactly how their sponsorships work before contacting them
• Have a list of accomplishments when speaking to the representative
• Have your website completely up to date
• Accept rejection respectfully
• If accepted for sponsorship, do everything to include this company in all band promotions
• Show the company you are promoting their product
• Understand that as a sponsor of any company, when at a show or out in public, you are acting as a de facto employee of that company
• And, most important….. Love and use the product/company you have sponsorship from

The great thing about relationships that work – is that they are reciprocal – all of the people that we partner with are friends first – people that, these days, I’ll call on for an opinion or some advice – it turns out that the most important thing about any artist/sponsor relationship – is the relationship.

See you at SXSW! Be sure to pick up a copy of Tour:Smart’s SXSW Survival Guide. It has thousand of dollars of coupons, discounts, tips ,and contests inside from our friends at: Marrow, Ourstage, Po-Po, Dandyland Tattoo on 6th street in Austin (our home away from at SXSW), Musician’s Atlas, Oasis Disc Manufacturing, Presonus Audio, Dean Guitars, Pearl Drums, Trick Drums, and of course Jagermeister!

Tour:Smart on the road:

Wednesday, March 18 - SXSW Austin, TX

* 4:30pm Martin Atkins Tour:Smart Seminar at SXSW!  This is a can't miss talk.  (Austin Convention Center, Room 18)

Thursday, March 19 - SXSW Austin, TX

* 1:00pm Martin Atkins / Tour:Smart special book signing at Barnes & Noble in the Austin Convention Center

Saturday, March 21 - Houston, TX

* 6:00pm FREE Tour:Smart DIY Summit at the Meridian (1503 Chartres St). Reserve your spot at the seminar here The DIY Summit is followed by a show featuring The Queers, Los Skarnales, The Cute Lepers, Simpleton, SiNDADDY, Poison Arrows, Bozo Porno Circus, Whorehound, and Chant  Martin Atkins will be DJing between each band. Tickets for the show are $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Click here for tickets

Tuesday, March 24 - Los Angeles, CA

* 2:00pm FREE Tour:Smart DIY Summit co-promoted by Grammy U at University of Southern California's Ground Zero's Coffee House (615 Child's Way - Los Angeles, CA). Limited space! Reserve your space here

Tuesday, March 24 - Los Angeles, CA

* 7:00pm Book signing and Tour:Smart talk at Book Soup (8818 Sunset Blvd). RSVP here