Martin Atkins: Ideas I like

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Martin Akins
knowthemusicbiz

Yesterday I was at The Baltimore Music Conference and met Keith Center from a DC based folk-core band called The Dreamscape Project ….Sometimes bands that aren’t obviously, rabidly perusing POP success really fail at the merchandising side of things. These guys don’t so I wanted to blog about them and remember their great ideas……

1. Three weeks before a show they send out a handful of postcards to their fans as a reminder and as a call to arms to hand out a few (more about this in a minute.)
2. Instead of a merch booth each member of the band is equipped with a shoulder bag packed with a few of each item they have for sale and is charged with the responsibility of mingling and selling (more about this in a minute too).
3. There is no 3.

A couple of tweaks from me….

I’d try one time to send out VIP passes or a free live cd to the fans three weeks before a show. I was concerned that a handful of postcards sent to a fan is like sending them a work order, “please distribute these to people at the mall.” But, shit, it’s still GOOD!

My only other tweak (and now I have tweaked both of these great ideas) would be IN ADDITION to having the roaming band-member-merchandise-assault-squad – set up a merch booth. People like me need to know where the table with the merch is because that’s where the merch is. I might not get to wandering around to find the merchandis-ettes. I might grab someone and go, “hold on Betty! There’s no fucking merch at all - we’re leaving!” Plus, not everyone wants to deal face to face with a sweaty band member…….people are shy, people are timid.

I hope that I haven’t now turned this around into a ‘here’s my twenty problems with The Dreamscape Project” because I really liked their out of the box, different thinking. I’m just a hole poker ain’t I? Send me your ideas so that I can blog about them. Then, everyone can use them and you’ll have to come up with more good ones - that’s the fuel that burns the fire and keeps us all warm.

PLR

MarteeeeeeeeeN