“The f*cking iPod and iPad: that’s the new Beatles!” This may sound like a strange statement to make, and it would be, if somebody other than Martin Atkins were making it. You may not be familiar with the name Martin Atkins. That’s okay; he’s not a celebrity. What he is, however, is a true music industry Jack-of-all-trades. In his decade spanning career, he’s played with bands such as Public Image Ltd., Killing Joke, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. He’s the owner of record company Invisible Records, and has gone as far as Beijing’s underground scene to scout for new talent.
He’s currently teaching at the Madison Media Institute, with experience from teaching “The Business of Touring” at Columbia College Chicago. Recently he founded his own school- Revolution Number Three. He’s author of Tour:Smart, arguably the most definitive guide to touring available. The nearly 600 page mammoth details everything from booking your own show to constructing a guestlist. The contributors range from Henry Rollins to Chris Connelly to The Suicide Girls, with many other industry insiders.
Add to this already comprehensive list: producer, DJ, documentary filmmaker and columnist, and you’ve got one hell of an impressive CV. In short, when Martin Atkins talks music, you listen.
Though he undoubtedly looks like an old punk he has got an air of professionalism and authority about him. He says that in one way or another, he’s been involved in the music industry all his life. However, he maintains that certain things haven’t changed.
“You still have the big business on the one end and the innovators doing the new shit on the other end. Major labels versus indie labels; the D.I.Y. crowd versus the not D.I.Y. crowd. The differences have always been there, but now the D.I.Y. crowd has a distinct advantage, as the big oil tanker of the traditional business loses its way. It’s the small speedboats that can make quick turns. They can try one direction and if that’s no good, they can go back and try another one. The big oil tankers are committed to one direction and if that doesn’t work out than that’s it; they’re stuck, they can’t manoeuvre. The advantage is with the small entrepreneurial thinkers.”
He does however recognize that technology represents big change and he praises the fact that the barriers to distribution have now disappeared. I wonder whether this increased accessibility to music has made it easier or harder to make your mark as an artist?
“Well, for the D.I.Y. crowd, its just another day, another problem. What I’ve done all my life is solve problems, so just bring me another problem. When I see people who want to change the rules and dial it backwards, that’s disappointing. The rules can only be changed by moving forward. People either get it and they do it and they’re not afraid of making mistakes. They change the course and respond and learn from their mistakes or they sit in a room shaking with fear.”
With the changes in distribution Atkins believes that the era of supplying music through selling albums is over, but he does not believe that the physical format is dead. “The physical model is coming back, not as a way to mass market, but as an artefact. It becomes art objects for people to own, rather than a form of distributing the music. Now vinyl is cool. People are worried about illegal downloading, but the same thing happened in the 70s through the black music market.” With all his experience Atkins remains philosophical about major shifts – “When you’re as old as I am, you see this shit and its like ‘oh people are getting hysterical over nothing again’.”
Atkins doesn’t see illegal downloading as the big problem the industry perceives it to be. “It seems to me people are quite happy getting their music the way they’re getting it and bands are succeeding. What problem exactly are they trying to solve? Are they trying to make money? Trying to insert themselves into the supply chain? This is middle managing and there’s a lot of that going on.”
Middle managing is something the business veteran is not fond of. In Tour:Smart he advises bands to cut out the middle man and book shows themselves. Is there no room for that linking body?
“There is room. But anyone who can help a band could help 20 bands, and the business model is that if you can help 20 bands you should be trying to help 50. The more times you spin the wheel, the more likely you are to get the prize. The people who can help you don’t have the time to help you because they’re busy helping everybody a tiny little bit. So you have to do things yourself, make your own mistakes and keep a record of everything.”
Atkins sees a future without major labels; he feels they have played out their part. He envisions a set of loose organisational alliances, whereby like-minded people use their leverage to help each other.
“Just think of all those millions of plays on MySpace, yet the bands themselves have no leverage over the MySpace machine. None of the bands have a voice within MySpace. But if say, 50 bands got together then they would suddenly have much more influence.”
With the arrival of services like MySpace, an unprecedented amount of music has become available. This means that the music industry is losing ground not only as a distributor but also as the main tastemaker. Atkins however, feels that the role of the tastemakers, in one form or another, is still important.
“The voice’s role is so important, because we’re getting so swamped. When somebody you respect and trust recommends something to you, you’ll go out and get that album. Instead of it being like, ‘here are a thousand records you should maybe listen to, maybe not’. That ends up being so overwhelming that you don’t listen to anything at all. It’s weird because if you think back at the 50,000 people seeing the Beatles at Shea stadium, that’s never gonna happen again. The total activity is the same, maybe more, but it’s meaningless because there are just thousands of bands. The model is just changing, it’s diluted.”
Ultimately, the times they are a-changing. Atkins believes music can no longer be marketed as a product. People are still able to have meaningful experiences with music on a personal level, but he does not see it crafting that collective bond for future generations. Something else entirely seems to have taken up that place.
“The market forces are still there and people want to worship something. It seems to me that it has just changed from people worshipping the Beatles and this band and that band to worshipping a product. Applications are the new hit singles.”
“Years ago, labels used to have fake promotional stories, like “Led Zeppelin have left the tapes to the new album in a taxi”. Now, it’s “somebody left the new iPhone in a bar in San Francisco.” When I saw that story, I was like ‘wow, technology is the new music industry’.”