Comments on: The worst SonicBids opportunity ever http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/2007/02/21/the-worst-sonicbids-opportunity-ever/ The TweedBlog: musings, ramblings, and miscellany about bluegrass, jazz, folk, and Americana music. Courtesy of Tangleweed, the five-piece Chicago-based Acoustic Americana group. Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:55:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: carrie http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/2007/02/21/the-worst-sonicbids-opportunity-ever/comment-page-1/#comment-160505 carrie Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:56:29 +0000 http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/?p=321#comment-160505 Sophie is right. Sonic bids has a monopoly where they force bands to pay their middleman fees to apply to festivals. There is no way around it. Join the Facebook group telling them where to stick it http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=245193228788 Sophie is right. Sonic bids has a monopoly where they force bands to pay their middleman fees to apply to festivals. There is no way around it. Join the Facebook group telling them where to stick it http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=245193228788

]]> By: Sophie http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/2007/02/21/the-worst-sonicbids-opportunity-ever/comment-page-1/#comment-154183 Sophie Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:35:34 +0000 http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/?p=321#comment-154183 Socicbids is "pay to play." They have Savvy public relations and marketing team that responds to all disgruntled customers on the sonicbids message boards. Their aim is to not look like they are greedy middlemen and instead try the "we are just trying to provide an outlet for artists" appeal. It's really quite disgusting for sonicbids and for the businesses and venues that use sonicbids, because sonicbids tries to get the monopoly on any and every opportunity, so people have to pay for an account at sonicbids just to submit to an opportunity. Socicbids is “pay to play.” They have Savvy public relations and marketing team that responds to all disgruntled customers on the sonicbids message boards. Their aim is to not look like they are greedy middlemen and instead try the “we are just trying to provide an outlet for artists” appeal. It’s really quite disgusting for sonicbids and for the businesses and venues that use sonicbids, because sonicbids tries to get the monopoly on any and every opportunity, so people have to pay for an account at sonicbids just to submit to an opportunity.

]]> By: Benjy http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/2007/02/21/the-worst-sonicbids-opportunity-ever/comment-page-1/#comment-17333 Benjy Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:29:21 +0000 http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/?p=321#comment-17333 Hey Kenneth, a couple quick things: 1) I recently posted (a few minutes ago) on the link you provided below for Jim Hodgson, the person you wrote thinks "Sonicbids sucks." He received a reply directly from Sonicbids' Artist Relations team shortly after he sent the message to us, and he responded with thanks and appreciation. We have asked him to update his thread. 2) I thing KOA is trying something new in a way to help get artists in front of audiences they wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to be in front of. Obviously unpaid performances are not idea, but for many artists this is another opportunity to gain new fans, sell CDs and other merch, etc. The point is that no one opportunity is right for all artists, and no one artist is right for all opportunities, and artists have to be smart about what they make submissions to be considered for because it is an investment, but far from a new one. Artists already pay for consideration for opportunities, but they pay in the form of CD duplication costs, supplies, and especially postage to send physical press kits to promoters who don't need them or want them. Every time you send a press kit by mail you're simply giving your money to the post office. A Sonicbids subscription of $49.95-99.95 per year will allow artists to send their EPK as much as they want via email to anyone at all. A huge benefit to an account outside of being able to make direct submissions for specific opportunities - and a benefit I think too many artists overlook. As far as submission fees go, there are only 6 drop boxes (out of almost 1100) that are $50 or higher, and most of those come with additional services provided. If you have questions about submission fees, by all means WAIT to make a submission until you have reached the promoter to ask what they use submission fees for. They could simply be a barrier of entry to inappropriate artists, or they could be a way to help compensate artists better for their performances, or any number of reasons. Those submission fees are set by the promoters, and you can ask them for more info. Don't make a submission if you're dissatisfied with the info. Feel free to keep a discussion going in the Sonicbids Community Forum at www.sonicbids.com/forum. Thanks, Benjy Hey Kenneth,
a couple quick things:
1) I recently posted (a few minutes ago) on the link you provided below for Jim Hodgson, the person you wrote thinks “Sonicbids sucks.” He received a reply directly from Sonicbids’ Artist Relations team shortly after he sent the message to us, and he responded with thanks and appreciation. We have asked him to update his thread.

2) I thing KOA is trying something new in a way to help get artists in front of audiences they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to be in front of. Obviously unpaid performances are not idea, but for many artists this is another opportunity to gain new fans, sell CDs and other merch, etc. The point is that no one opportunity is right for all artists, and no one artist is right for all opportunities, and artists have to be smart about what they make submissions to be considered for because it is an investment, but far from a new one. Artists already pay for consideration for opportunities, but they pay in the form of CD duplication costs, supplies, and especially postage to send physical press kits to promoters who don’t need them or want them. Every time you send a press kit by mail you’re simply giving your money to the post office. A Sonicbids subscription of $49.95-99.95 per year will allow artists to send their EPK as much as they want via email to anyone at all. A huge benefit to an account outside of being able to make direct submissions for specific opportunities – and a benefit I think too many artists overlook.

As far as submission fees go, there are only 6 drop boxes (out of almost 1100) that are $50 or higher, and most of those come with additional services provided. If you have questions about submission fees, by all means WAIT to make a submission until you have reached the promoter to ask what they use submission fees for. They could simply be a barrier of entry to inappropriate artists, or they could be a way to help compensate artists better for their performances, or any number of reasons. Those submission fees are set by the promoters, and you can ask them for more info. Don’t make a submission if you’re dissatisfied with the info.

Feel free to keep a discussion going in the Sonicbids Community Forum at http://www.sonicbids.com/forum.

Thanks,
Benjy

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