Martin Atkins TOUR SMART and MYSPACE mp3 sales

* Brian of Euphonic Dissonance gives a progress report. *

TOUR SMART

Just finished the book by Martin Atkins, TOUR SMART : AND BREAK THE BAND.



Martin Atkins is the Chef Gordon Ramsey of the music world. He's a wee bit nicer than Ramsey but he uses an equal amount of swear words. I know a lot of my cronies laugh at me for reading these "how to make it in the business" books. I made a promise to myself a long time ago about this music business stuff and that was that I would never run blindly into anything!!!! I have read a lot about the music industry and the one crystal clear thing I've learned from what I've read and witnessed firsthand is that if you don't educate yourself someone will take advantage of your stupidity. I'm not going to let that happen or at the least I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent it from happening. So go ahead and laugh and scoff.....I'll be waving at you from the stage someday soon ..... oh ..... and I'll be making money while I'm doing it.

THE HATERS CAN GO SCREW OFF!!!!

Now that I have that out of my system.... if you are a musician and you're serious about making some money and you're willing to work hard then this is the book for you. Also, good news is ..... it's not a boring strictly business type book. Martin Atkins is seriously funny (what the hell does that even mean? SERIOUSLY FUNNY? That makes no f**kin' sense). But when you're dealing with messed up touring musician drama how can you not make a joke? Everyone enjoys crazy, zany rock star stories. That keeps VH1 on the air.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that this guy knows the music business in and out and upside down wiggling it's ass in the air. He comes from deep inside the womb of the industrial music movement. After playing drums in a variety of English bands, Martin auditioned for and subsequently joined Johnny Rotten’s Public Image Limited in 1979. His first contribution to the band was co?writing and performing on the song “Bad Baby” for the revered Metal Box LP. After touring the world with P.i.L and contributing to several more studio albums Martin left the group in 1985. Over the next five years, he played with and managed Killing Joke and toured with Ministry. In 1990, while on tour with Ministry, he formed his own band, Pigface. He also worked with Nine Inch Nails, performing on the Grammy award winning “Wish” and appearing in the “Head like a Hole” video. This man has stood side by side with some of the most influential musicians in one of my favorite genres of music. Damn impressive.

Hey Martin, call me when you want to start working on your MARTIN ATKINS TOUR SMART REALITY SHOW. I got some ideas for you.

ED ON MYSPACE MUSIC

Very soon you will be able to buy Euphonic Dissonance music directly from the EUPHONIC DISSONANCE MYSPACE SITE. We expect to see this service up in the next few weeks. Now you won't have to leave MYSPACE and go to iTunes just to buy our music. You're already on MYSPACE why the hell can't you just buy it there!!!! Well, NOW YOU CAN. ED loves all of their MYSPACE fans and we promise to pay more attention to you.

COMING SOON

If you love ABBA | chess | Murray Head then don't miss our next blog.  Love you all and good day to you. Now click on the link below to buy our songs or the TRANSITIONS album on iTunes. No...sorry....I don't have a way for you to just purchase it right here on the blog. Alright.....alright.....Martin said it was important to be nice to the fans ...... so......we'll see what we can do for you. I'll get my people working on it right away. Thanks for the tip and thanks for being a fan of Euphonic Dissonance.

I'm Such a Filthy Little Whore

I feel so dirty. As a musician in this new age of the internets I'm constantly having to market my music. It very difficult to know where to draw the line sometimes. The artist in me wishes he didn't have to do all this tedious work. I would much rather be working on music than typing this blog but this blog might be the one thing that causes you to buy our album. It's all about exposure. If you don't expose yourself to people they won't buy your product. Would you like for me to expose myself? I bet you would.

I'm a very private person. You probably would have never guessed that from reading my blogs. I like my privacy and doing this kind of work doesn't allow you to have a private life. It's disrupting. It's disturbing. I don't like it.

And at the same time I love it. I love the music. I love the thrill of playing before a crowd. I enjoy mingling with the fans after a good show. (mingling after a bad show is just kind of depressing....rather go home and cry in a beer) But it's really the making and performing of music that thrills the artist - it's not marketing. However, we are forced in this new economic climate to market ourselves.

Please forgive me. I beg you to forgive me. I'm a recording artist and I really don't know the first friggin' thing about marketing and advertising. I'm guessing as to what will work and won't work. I'm experimenting. And I have absolutely no concept of what's too little or what's too much. I'm not a graphic designer, I'm not a website designer, I'm not a professional advertising agency, I'm not a booking agent, I'm not a major record label - I'm a musician. But if I ever want a lot of people to hear my music I have to learn to be all of the things I previously listed. I have to adapt and learn. It's the only way to make it in this business.

If you are a fellow musician and you're trying to learn more about how to whore yourself out to the masses I would recomend you read a book by Martin Atkins titled Tour Smart: And Break The Band. I think I'm in the third of 4th chapter but it's been a great read so far. This guy really has some insight on what you will face on the road while touring. It's mostly about touring but there are some good things in there about whoring yourself out for the almighty dollar. Martin seems to understand that a band won't make it in the business if they aren't willing to adapt and become a filthy little whore willing to do any job that has to be done. You have to be willing to work in order to make something of yourself and most musicians don't seem to grasp that concept.

MMMMM ..... rim job.

I felt that after a rant like that it's only appropriate to include the following clip of The Who performing My Generation on the  Smothers Brothers show. Good god I want to blow up some friggin' drums. But it's more my style to just set them on fire.