datamusicata

Tony is really nice but the response is not honest.
Seriously, its such a huge problem that Jazz bands are submitting to a heavy metal club and vice versa- that the solutions is to charge a fee beginning with $2 and ending in the hundreds?
What guarantee is the company giving that the artists that submit (paying money) are really being given any consideration?
What guarantee is there that any of the selections are actually followed through on?
If you read their forums there is an enormous discrepency between what they are taking money for and what they are delivering...

dear s.c. my feeling is, if you get then work, then they should get paid. if you don't get the work, then it is just costing you. sonic bids makes money, the venue makes money and you, the artist, the one least able to afford not making money, actually loses money. i think it sucks. but it's supply and demand. there are a lot more artists than venues and labels, so when ever there is a glut, the product (in this case, us) becomes devalued. it is frustrating because no matter how good you get, if no one hears you, to what avail is the growth, except self satisfaction. these are tricky times and i just keep wanting to blame the people who made george bush president. they put the whole world out of balance. in a fair and just world would that man's accomplishments made him president? and it filters down, always, down to us.
keep practicing, keep trying, keep gigging, keep performing, keep writing and most of all, keep believing. it's where it all starts and nothing comes without it.
james

i just signed up for sonicbids and was contemplating putting up media on to their servers when i decided to search for reviews on this service.

i didn't realize that there was a submission fee for groups on sonicbids to find work. this sucks. the author of this post is correct, that sonicbids is relying on revenue stream from the dryest of all demographics. musicians don't have sh#t. it gave me pause to sign up for th 30 day free trial knowing that i would have to give them my credit card number -- here's yet another opportunity for identity theft.

so, i will now cancel my membership with sonicbids, a mere few hours after i have signed up now that i know that it is just a scam like many other music promotion scams -- anyone remember TAXI song pluggers?

soapbox rant:
i am sick of the sites that hope to make money hawking talent. invariably, the musicians do all the work and payout for these stupid services and most get nothing in return.

i believe that if you have your own website and a good 'feel' for the area in terms of the availability of live music venues, then combining the two resources should be able to net you a gig. you don't necessarily need a service like this sonicbid b.s. to get employed.

i also want to mention that record companies are now dead but continue to promote their 3 or 4 artists a year using the media channel they control anyway (MTV, radio). they cannot, however, control the Internet and this place can and does make a difference in the way a band can make money and become famous.

sonicbids is just another trap and musicians should stay away.

I went to http://www.g2.fm and http://www.myspace.com and told the other sites to go F themselves.

We have been a client of Sonicbids for almost 10 years - and had a number of our artists' EPK's registered through them. We have never liked or used their "pay to see if the venue might be interested in us" scheme. A phone call and email is cheaper. The festivals that operate a "closed shop" system through Sonicbids will be the poorer for it.

We are a UK based company, but our artists perform in Europe, India and China. We have growingly come to the conclusion that the majority of Sonicbids effort and advantage remains in the USA.

The scheme certainly has an 'Indie feel' in the early days - but in our view has become corporate and now has all the baggage usually associated with that.

The most apparent of this is their lack of understanding concerning the service part of the offering. Interacting with their "Community Representatives" is much like trying to communicate with the customer service hotline at your bank. Their Email correspondence is scattered with corporate terminology and meaningless platitudes. Your complaint becomes "feedback" - and your concerns are treated as a resistance to change and assurances that "you'll get used to it".

You can read our response sent to Sonicbids and posted on their blog page here: http://blogs.sonicbids.com/lou/2010/04/16/whats-this-new-venue-database-thing/comment-page-1/#comment-1612

*******************

Going online (thanks google) made us realise the scale of dissatisfaction that echoed our own. We have just taken on 3 new artist clients and have made the decision not to register them with Sonicbids. We have since discovered a number of very good sites where we can create an EPK and which will embed the artist's giglist in other places. We will transfer our existing clients from Sonicbids during the next few weeks.

This action was not taken lightly - it entails a lot of admin effort on our part and people get attached to what becomes familiar. I also like Panos - I've shared coffee and donuts with him at the international music festival MIDEM in Cannes when I was with the British stand. Unfortunately, when it gets big, you lose control of the corporate beast and it becomes driven by other - irrespective of the original vision.

Inevitable this is the way of the "Indie" scene. It's beautiful and idealistic when it's 'lean and mean' - but becomes distant as it evolves. (There are corporate strategies to address this - but that's all they are ... strategies!)

We now feel quite liberated and "Indie" pioneers once again. We were also pleasantly surprised to discover some of the fabulous alternatives which now have the edge on Sonicbids. With our heads firmly buried in Sonicbid's beach we never noticed others developing a "better mousetrap". We are also delighted that they nearly all offer a free service.

It's a brand new music business - go and have fun!