Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18497 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Review
"An inveterate self-promoter, Martin Atkins is, as usual, talking a mile a minute. But it's hard to resist being charmed by his rapid-fire banter, because as always, he has plenty of impressive accomplishments to tout." —Chicago Sun Times

"Tour:Smart functions as an uncensored companion text to [Martin Atkins'] classroom teachings." —Chicago Tribune

"In my six years of college, Martin Atkins was the man to clarify all the other instructors' psychobabble! He prepped me for the industry in a single semester." —Michelle Cho, PETA

"This is not advice. This is the Holy Grail." —Kraze

"If you are a music business major at university, this should be on your syllabus. —Blogcritics Magazine



"Atkins embodies the entrepreneurial spirit with a unique merger of creativity and business sense"—Dr. David Herrera, Belmont University

"Having been a part of seminal bands like Pigface, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Killing Joke, and Public Image Limited, when Atkins talked about the business of music, people listen." —Richi Corelli, soundsect.com

"The ultimate touring manual. . . . Tackles every conceivable aspect of getting the show on the road in a highly readable style." —Mojo

About the Author
Martin Atkins is the owner of the record label Invisible and has been organizing multiband tours since 1995. As a professional drummer he was a member of the bands Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface, and Public Image Ltd. He is a member of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association and a professor at Columbia College Chicago where he teaches the seminar "The Business of Touring." He lives in Chicago.

Customer Reviews

If you're in a band, you need this book!
This book has so much useful information in it, compiled by people with years and years of experience, an incredible opportunity to learn things about touring and being successful in the music industry that they, no doubt, had to learn the hard way. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that's in a band or even just bought an instrument and plans on taking it seriously. The fact that it was written by artists I know about and are favorites of mine makes it even more credible. Martin Atkins is nothing short of brilliant and the world owes him thanks for putting this book together!

Rock Star Ambition-Read This First!
I purchased this to review then hand over to my son and his band who
have toured relentlessly for the last 6 years. They have been through
3 record label deals that would make even the strong bands quit and go
back to a 9 to 5. Their lives are written in Marty's pages-but Marty
gives hope. Follow the do's & don't's like those who give advise here.
If you think you can work around the proven methods of earning a living
as a touring musician you will surely learn the hard way and have plenty
of debt to prove it. There is a lot of info here and some great ideas to
keep you earning money. Thanks, Marty for your insight because you lived
it and the fine contributions from others in the industry. This is a manual to consistantly refer to as you journey through the adventurous
career of entertaining the fickle public.

Probably great if your band is already big.
Man, I wanted to like this book, but I was really disappointed.
I'm in a bad that tours the country about twice a year, and has for the last few years, and I'd hoped this book would have some good advice. However, this book is aimed at bands who already play to a few hundred people a night, rather than for someone at my level. Also, it doesn't give you much advice on doing things without a big team behind you: for example, it tells you that you could book a tour without a booking agent, but doesn't give you much advice on how to actually do that.
I also felt like this book was aimed at men, and assumed that the audience it was speaking to was male (lots of sections seemed uneccesarily gendered) and HATED HATED HATED a lot of the sections about being a woman on tour. Ugh. The advice was things like "Don't pack too much makeup" and "Don't lose your keys." Srsly?
I've been booking tours and in touring bands for about 5 years now, and I felt like this was an interesting read for a peek into the life of a big band on tour, but was pretty irrelevant to a small band, and kind of insulting to female musicians.