No one can accuse singer-songwriter James Blunt of being a Luddite. Within a week of Facebook Places launching in the UK, the English musician known for hits such as “You’re Beautiful” found a way to use the geo-location service for promotional purposes.

People who attended the launch party for his new album Some Kind of Trouble in central London on Wednesday could download three free tracks if they first checked into the venue via Facebook Places. Blunt’s website gives the details. (The album won’t be out in the U.S. until 2011, according to Atlantic Records).

The album launch gig was intimate but fans who didn’t win tickets were invited to swing by the venue One Mayfair (next to 13 North Audley Street, London, W1K 6ZA) anyway. They could still get the free tracks from the new album by checking into the venue “James Blunt Fan Show at One Mayfair” (if users were presented with a choice of multiple venues they were advised to go with anything with “James Blunt” in the title). Once they checked in they could go to jamesblunt.com/fanshow and download the tracks.

Blunt reportedly plans to use Facebook Places on his 2011 tour of Europe to give everyone who attends one of his concerts a free live download as well. This offer is to be valid for every country in which Places is operating – currently that’s the UK, France and Italy but it should be more by 2011 since Facebook plans to roll out Places to every country it operates in by the end of the year.

I think this is an innovative way to use Places. So far the focus has been on how fixed-location businesses can use the service, but the technology can work equally well for temporary venues as long as they have a presence in the real world at some point in time. It’s a good way to reward fans for going to the live shows – although the tagging feature in Places does mean that concert-goers can secure downloads for their absent friends as well. Probably Blunt doesn’t care about that – it’s all good marketing, after all.