Tour:Smart – Cool Tools

Living on the Road

Tour:Smart

Musician touring tips

I don’t have a band, but if I did, I would use this book to guide me through the intricacies of touring. That’s the new economics of the music: a returning emphasis on live performance. This fat book is the best guidance I’ve seen for emerging musical artists. It is brutally honest, remarkably wise, and extremely helpful. Atkins is really good at extracting lessons. There are testimonies not just from many other musicians, but their roadies, agents, bus-drivers, managers, fans, and all the other folks you will need supporting you. This book is so good, in fact, anyone “touring,” including authors, dancers, filmmakers would find pats of it useful. In the new economy, your live presence is more valuable than copies of your past work. Here’s how to maximize your presence with the least hassles, and hopefully make a living do it.

Practicing what he preaches, author Martin Atkins offers live interactions, chats, lectures, performances, and email correspondence versions of his advice. Another kind of touring.

07/2/10

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PHYSICAL

Paper Republic Grand Voyageur XL Leather Journal — I'm a firm believer in hand writing notes to make them stick. Whilst I like drafting things online, I use disposable fountain pens to gather my ideas and record memories on squared paper.
Nikon Prostaff 7S Binoculars — I recently moved near the sea, and my wife bought me these binoculars. I get an immense amount of joy watching boats sail in and around the Dublin Bay area.
Samsung Viewfinity S9 Display — I’ve come to the conclusion that the monitor set up that works best for me is one screen, with lots of resolution (at least 4K). I’ve tried curved screens, dual monitors and even triple displays, but getting the most real estate right in front of my eyes works best. This one is the sweetspot in terms of function, size, features - and it has a great webcam to cut down the connections & cables.

DIGITAL

Ghost — This newsletter/website platform has revolutionised the way I work, cutting down the amount of time spent fiddling and fixing sites and helping me focus on writing content and hitting publish. It hasn't fixed my imposter syndrome, but it has helped with procrastination.
Magnet — With all the screen real estate, you need a great window management tool. Magnet is the tool that helps me arrange everything I need in front of me. For a few dollars, this gives me ALL the options for moving windows into the right place, and hotkeys to speed things up. Invaluable software.

INVISIBLE

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Advice for any creator who needs to move forwards.

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