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Any opinions on sonicbids?

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I've been on Sonicbids since 2006. To be honest the only thing I use is it for, is the tour date embedding feature to your website. I punch in my tour dates, and it automatically updates my website. This is cheaper and more convenient that having my record label do it.

I've been on the road for years, and I have a lot of friends that do the paid submission thing to gigs, and I have not heard one story where sonic bids helped em' get a gig. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I just have yet to hear of a success story from the people I know that use it.

Last year, I was the top booked artist for the months of Feb and Mar. When you update your tour dates on sonicbids, there is a tab that you can check saying that You booked the gig thru sonicbids. I do this by default all the time since the feature is there. Up here in Canada, there is a user group called maplepost. They reside in the folk/americana roots scene. One of the list members contacted Sonicbids stating that he didn't think this was appropriate. Now, lemme assure you, all of my tour dates are legit. But I usually book em' myself or thru my agency. To be fair, as I stated above, Sonicbids had no part in my booking. But they have included that tab, so I'm gonna use it. As a result, Sonicbids contacted me directly and asked me not to do that. I responded that they should consider cancelling my acct, or change they way they display artists on their front page. My reasoning was simple. When I was the top artist, my page hits went sky high. Almost 20,000 hits per month if I remember correctly. Plus my song plays jumped according also. Which in turn caused my online cd sales to increase quite a bit in that time. Which, in my mind, at the end of the day, is the goal most artists are looking to achieve. I pay a premium to be a member, and I saw a return to my investment.

After my little spat with them, in which I stated as a business, I would take care of my customers as opposed to reviewing an email from a disgruntled folk musician who has a hard time getting gigs, and spends more time worrying about what other full time touring musicians are doing and was in fact not even a sonicbids member.

Since then, they have changed the way they display their members on their front page, and it works fairly.

In summation (As I kinda feel like I just testified), It's worth the 50 bucks per year to be able to automatically update my tourdates. The jury is out (for me) as to whether Sonicbids is successful in placing artists for gigs. This is just MHO, but I have a real hard time paying money to a promoter to get a show. I know I've been lucky and toured with alot of world class acts and played some great festivals around the world, but I always got paid to do that. I never had to pay. Thats why I pay a % to an agent. The more money they get me, the more they make. Sonicbids gets their money up front, with no guarantee of a gig.

Take my opinions for what they are worth to you. I'm sure others will chime in with their Sonicbids experiences

Sonicbids can be a bit of a crapshoot, but my group has had some success with it...we booked a showcase at CMJ in NYC last year, as well as Bumbershoot here in Seattle and some good licensing/press opportunities.

It's cool in that it's a great way to have a standardized EPK that is based on quick and dirty CONTENT. Useful in many ways.

I'd guess that for every 8 or so submissions we've made, we probably land one...There is a ton of artists out there, and I've learned to save the submissions for the ones that count...otherwise you can be out $ needlessly. Do the proper vetting of the gig offsite 1st before submitting as well. Is it legit and/or worth the submission fee? I would also say this - try to do what you can outside of Sonicbids and then use SB for those gigs that only book exclusively through the site.

I'd say that Sonicbids is great, as long as it's not the only tool in the box.

Hope that helps,

Nicolas