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.

Martin Atkins' experience from a recent Tour:Smart event:

A guy came up to me after my Tour:Smart event in Traverse City.  He plays on his own, without a band, has a CD, etc.  He's trying to expand his base outside of Traverse City which is, literally, the end of the line in upper Michigan. He had a GREAT idea to tell the local bars, "I'll play for free!" That’s always going to get a good response; but then, even as he told me the next part of his 'pitch' he realized (maybe he could see my face contorting) that the last part screwed it all up "then next time you can pay me $100." I'm sure all the club owners heard was "$100, $100, $100."  Even just spoken aloud to me it sounded like a contract.

Part of his 'getting the hell out of Dodge' strategy had to do with finding a place, any place, to play.  He told me that when he does play people like him and that bars during the tourist season up there are PACKED. I gave him the following strategy (which is a variation of the car park strategy where you flyer the car park of a larger similar genre event and manage to hit everyone within a 50 mile radius, rather than YOU driving all over the 50 mile radius - your target audience has been magnetized to you!) - use it!

Because Traverse City IS a vacation destination, punters (your audience) are traveling there from various parts of the country.  I suggested that he play for FREE everywhere he could, including busking at any busy location (or close to one) BUT to make sure that he collects e-mail information in exchange for a free CD, download code, t-shirt WHATEVER.  The important thing is for him to get as many  legitimate contacts as possible, THEN, wait for the tipping point when a cluster of fans that have seen him in Traverse City appear in, Florida, Detroit, or, shit, a town 50 miles south .......wait to see the data then strategize how you are going to make use of it.  The good news is that because he is only one person he will be able to travel cost effectively to pour some gasoline on those sparks. Also, he knows one more thing about the people from out of town who have picked up his music - they have money to travel out of town and entertain themselves!

A similar strategy could work very well if you live in the Austin TX area. USE SXSW as a built in free world wide trawling for fans and contacts party!   Strategize a cool way to get e-mail addresses, provide a service, and take it from there.  IF all of your connections weirdly end up to be in Norway or Brazil - go there!

For more strategies like this one, attend Martin’s Tour:Smart PLUS 3 day seminar Jan 29 – 31 in Chicago.  Enter code “2for1” for a FREE pass for a friend. 

Also, check out Martin’s talk on the road .  He’s hitting the west coast, UK, and Norway in February. 

 Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA     

    8:00am: New Music Seminar- Henry Fonda Theatre 6126 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

    RSVP: http://lanewmusicseminar.eventbrite.com

Thursday, February 4, 2010 - Portland, OR

    7:00pm: Tour:Smart seminar at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel 1022 Southwest Stark Street Portland, OR 97205

    RSVP: http://tstourthecleaners.eventbrite.com/

Saturday, February 6, 2010 - Sacramento, CA   

   3:00pm: Tour:Smart seminar at Marilyn's - 1107 9th Street, Suite T-100 Sacramento, CA 95811

   RSVP: http://toursmartsacramento.eventbrite.com/

Sunday, February 7, 2010 - San Francisco, CA

   6:30PM: Tour:Smart seminar at The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues - 401 Mason St. 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94102

   RSVP: http://tssanfran.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - USC La Crescenta, CA 

    2:00pm: Guest Lecture at USC 2820 Manhattan Ave La Crescenta, CA 91214 United States

Thursday, February 11, 2010 - Pomona, CA

    12:00pm: Guest Lecture at Cal Poly (3801 W. Temple Ave. Pomona, CA 91768)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Toronto, Canada

Canadian Music Week - Conference, Panel, Speaker. Times to TBD

  Thursday, March 18, 2010 - Austin, TX

12:30pm: Welcome to the Music Business-You're Fucked Speaking at SXSW (Austin Convention Center Austin, TX)