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Looper's Delight
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I signed on long ago when they first opened shop. Sonicbids is more oriented towards mainstream music and there are not a lot of opportunities for instrumental music, but there are some. In my opinion, Sonicbids is this: - you pay a fee to have your promo kit placed slightly above those of the desperate hoards, so that there is more of a chance someone will pay attention to you. the time-tested, tried and true way that musicians get work is still - through personal connections and recommendations from trusted sources. but MAYBE a Sonicbids gig will help you meet and been heard by other people, who will lead to other people and other people...etc....so on up the food chain until you are omnipresent and people are recommending you all the time. (that goes for all gigs, nothing special about the Sonicbids ones) I give myself a yearly promotional budget, and think of the occasional Sonicbids submission as part of that. you need to be selective however, or you are just throwing money away that might be better spent on other promotional activities so, my experience with the service? I seem to have been "selected" for 75% the things I've applied for...I think because there are not many experimental instrumentalists in the pool and its a smaller pond than indie rock. HOWEVER....I have a beef with Sonicbids that I"ve been discussing with them and which I think you should be warned about... 50% of the things I was "selected" for, the "promoter" has yet to follow through - in several cases more than a year later. All the festival gigs and some radio thing happened.... But other "opportunities", like reviews, compilations, shows at smaller venues, internet radio - the promoters happily took my submission fee, announced that I was "selected" then nothing happened and they have never returned any of my follow-up emails (rarely do you get a phone number). This seems sketchy to me. I began vetting the opportunities up there more carefully (some have just a single webpage and its hard to find out anything about them) and only submitting to things that I can find out more about outside of Sonicbids. For a couple listings up there, I ended up just bypassing Sonicbids, contacted the venues and booked the shows myself....so it kind of called into question the purpose of the service. But, I've been kept VERY busy these days, and haven't used Sonicbids for some time. There are good things about it...if you're at the stage where you just need to get out there and perform, I think its good. But there needs to be a little more carefulness on their part in selecting the opportunities and making sure these "promoters" have their act together. I have the feeling they are just desperately trying to get more and more content, and not thoroughly vetting it. Once a member is "selected" Sonicbids is out of the picture. They are aware of the problem and seem receptive to feedback. It's a small company and I like their concept because I'm all about DIY. Since some of the opportunities are revolving, I suggested there be a way for members to rate promoters/opportunities, kind of like you do for sellers on Ebay. my 2 cents, Zoe On Mar 23, 2007, at 12:15 PM, Paul Mimlitsch wrote: > On Mar 23, 2007, at 12:57 PM, margaret noble wrote: >> anyways, i was about to plunge in and pay the fees to >> be a member and then i noticed that many/most of the >> bids you make for a gig has a >> 'submission fee.' and they arent cheap! > > Got a couple local gigs through sonicbids - more than paid for the > yearly membership. > >> what of experimental composers...is there a market for >> us there? > > Not specifically but there are numerous "indie" festivals that may > have that niche. > >> not sure if i am feeling it but if you have some >> experience with this i would love to know more! >> >> Margaret Noble >> Audio Artist >> http://www.myspace.com/margaretnoble >> >> >> >> _____________________________________________________________________ >> _______________ >> Don't pick lemons. >> See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. >> http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html >> >