and yes, the cost of the subscription plus the cost of submitting your EPK to promoters is drainging. I just decided to make a PDF and call it my EPK.

James

Here’s the message Amanda sent:
Hi Jim,

Thank you for your email and for expressing your concerns and feedback about Sonicbids. I am happy to offer some suggestions regarding your feedback and help you to better understand your account and EPK and how to use it more effectively.

In your first feedback, you mentioned that sending a physical press kit will actually make you more noticed and stand out more and I have to respectfully disagree with that. Sending out a physical press kit has much more risks than sending out an EPK. The EPK provides a way to send out your press kit in a more professional, easier, and effective way. I have heard of artists who submitted their EPK to a promoter who needed a last minute band and they got it because their press kit got their before all those who mailed them in and it was easier for the promoter to review it.

One of the best features of submitting an EPK is the security you get that you definitely do not receive with a physical press kit submission. Promoters are contractually obligated to review every Sonicbids submission that they receive. This insures that your submission will be reviewed and not just thrown in the trash before it is even seen (promoter are not guaranteed to review your physical press kit, provided they did receive it and it was not lost in the mail). The physical press kit is also less organized than the EPK, as the promoter can lose pieces of the physical press kit but can’t with the EPK.

Our Promoter Relations team is in constant correspondence with promoters, assisting them with running their opportunities effectively and efficiently. If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding an opportunity, it is always best to try contacting the promoter directly, but you can also let us know, and our Promoter Relations team may be able to expedite the correspondence.

In your second feedback, you mentioned that the submission fees were too high. In some cases, you may find an opportunity that has a submission fee higher than you planned to pay. Please keep in mind that these submission fees are set by the promoter to be equal to or less than the cost of sending out the physical press kit. If a festival has a submission fee of $20, this submission fee usually still applies to those submitting physical press kits, only those submitting physical press kits also have to factor in the costs of supplies for creating the physical press kit and postage for mailing it out. We also encourage that promoters use the submission fees they receive and apply it to their event or for compensation to selected artists.

The submissions fees and the subscription fees are two separate entities. Your subscription allows you to build, edit, and email your EPK as much as you want whenever you want, saving money and time over physical press kit costs like CD duplication, supplies, and postage. The submission fees are set by the promoters themselves, and they are generally equal to or less than the cost of sending out a physical press kit.

You mentioned that the EPK can save you money using the “Email My EPK Out Now” tool and you’re absolutely right that this is a very valuable feature available only to active Sonicbids members that can save you money. Don’t overlook this tool as this is a way to send your EPK for no additional cost to anyone with an email address. If you’re spending time or money on sending out physical press kits to promoters and booking agents, this tool can be a huge value for you.

I am not sure exactly what cheating you were referring to in your feedback, but if you can please provide more specific information regarding this, I am happy to clear up any confusion you may have or look further into any opportunity that you have questions about.

Remember, it is always best to build a relationship with the promoters you connect with through Sonicbids and always best to contact a promoter directly before submitting to an opportunity as it will help you to address all your questions and concerns and help you determine if this opportunity is the right one for you to submit to.

I noticed that you have only submitted to 8 opportunities that you say you have come out with nothing to show for it. Remember, there are hundreds of other opportunities you can submit to in the “Promoter Drop Box,” and you can proactively search for opportunities using the “advanced search” tool to narrow your search by location, date, and genre. The “Promoter Drop Box” is a resource for our members to reach promoters with specific opportunities, but there is no obligation to use it. Not every opportunity is for everyone, and you are encouraged to contact the promoter directly to ask any questions before making a submission. In most cases, contact info can be found on the opportunity’s website.

Again don’t overlook the “Email My EPK” tool, “Community Forum,” and “Artist Search” tools as these are great ways of connecting with other artists, managers, promoters, and bookers.

With the emails, as a member, you have full control over what emails you receive from Sonicbids. We want to get appropriate announcements out to our members, but we don’t want to inundate them. You can select to receive or not receive messages by logging in to your account, clicking “edit profile”, and selecting the settings you prefer under the area labeled “options”.

If you are still interested in canceling your account, here’s how:

1) Log into your account with your username and password. (If you have a multi-user account, please click on the artist account you’d like to cancel.)
2) Select “Subscription Information.”
3) Click where it asks if you’d like to cancel.

***If you’d also like to remove your email address from our distribution lists, you’ll need to take these additional steps***
4) Go to the “Edit Profile” section of your account
5) Un-check any appropriate option boxes and make sure to save changes.

Your account is only accessible by you. Complete that cancellation page and you’ll be all set. Remember — you’ll still be able to send out your EPK through the end of the subscription term you’ve already signed up for, so even if you’re performing with a different band or under a different name, you can just update your EPK to reflect the new information. No need to cancel or start a new account.

If you feel that there is something we could do to improve your Sonicbids experience and keep you as a member, please let us know. We always welcome and learn from feedback from our members.

Hope that helps. Let us know if you have any further questions. If you need a quick answer to your question, check out the “Support Center” of your account for access to the FAQ and Quick Tip sections.

Best Regards,
Amanda

===============================
Have a question? Get Answers here: http://www.sonicbids.com/epkfaq
Not a member yet? Take a tour: http://www.sonicbids.com/tour
===============================

Musicians. Promoters. ONE Way To Connect.
http://www.sonicbids.com

Amanda J. Czaja
Artist Relations Representative
Sonicbids
580 Harrison Avenue, 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02118
Tel: 617-275-7247
Fax: 617-275-7223
support@sonicbids.com

What bothers me the most is the plethora of sites out there willing to take a musician’s buck.

Flipside - I’ve used myspace to build personal relationships (i.e., saying more to people than “thanks for the add, you rock”) and ended up playing to a packed room on my CD release, got airplay, got an article and photo in the newspaper, and sold a bunch of CDs.

My web site looks 10 times better than sonicbids. The audio and graphics quality is better, etc., etc.

My conclusion? BOYCOTT SONICBIDS. Build personal relationships with fans and venues. If there’s a venue or festival that books exclusively through Sonicbids, I think we should collectively ignore them.

It is time for indie musicians to rise up and stop everyone in the industry from making money on our music than ourselves. If we help someone make a profit, we deserve a share of that profit. As of now, I’m not going to give me hard-earned money away to line the pockets of Sonicbids’ and their clients.

For what it’s worth, in my experience, the following resources are indie friendly and deserve our business, and give tremendous value for our promotional dollars:

Bandzoogle.com
CDbaby.com

That’s my take. Now, I’m going over to Sonicbids to cancel my account.

Cheers,

-Dave

I am NOT a fan of Sonicbids – nor do I / we use it

Without going into detail….
A media kit is something that directly represents you, your talent and individuality.
When an artist emails me a link to a “sonicbids” page – me, nor my staff, could be bothered to look at it ( this goes for myspace as well). We don’t want to screw around the internet looking at pixelated graphics and listening to low resolution music samples ( that half the time don’t work anyways). Most producers already spend 99% of their day on a computer with day to day activities….so why would we want to spend ANOTHER hour trying to find and read your page?

If an artist wants to have a chance to work with us - They better put effort into a FULL printed media kit - providing pictures, music samples and background info.
We want a full kit that demonstrates / reflects your talent and individually.
I’m not saying that you need to spend $200 per kit – but try and PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS!!! We notice these things

Yes…Sending out a million Media Kits will waste a lot of money as the majority of them will get tossed in the garbage – but if you initiate contact somehow with a producer or promoter before providing a decent media kit, I can almost guarantee that they will at least look at it.

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

You might think you are the next Justin T…. but there needs to be something to spark our interest in your initial contact or packaging to get our attention. There has to be SOMETHING that separates you from the crowd - as we are going to compare you to the other kits on our desk…..as well as the other artists already on our roster. Spend some serious time thinking about your marketing angle and image !

IMO - Get a decent graphic designer / Photographer involved to help make you a kit….. As much as we appreciate homemade kits – the more professional and presentable your initial image seems – the better chance we are going to want to try and work with it.

If you talk to a 50 million producers and still no one wants to pick you up – maybe you need to revamp your presentation, the media kit or simply reconsider being a music artist.?

Just my thoughts.
Thanx.

Dustin L
Executive Producer
XXX-Group of Companies
OnlyTheHardcoreSurvive.com

$5 per month is the less than 1/16 the cost that we once spent on mailing costs before.

As for MySpace, several of the promoters that we work with will view our band’s MySpace, but they still want a press kit. That’s just the way it is.

All in all, $5 per month is pretty cheap.

but great you put this topic up here. it is always helpful having someone looking at things critically. i’m sure sonicbids might pass on this site from time 2 time. this definitely will make them work even harder to get some positive feedback.

And, for the record, cdbaby ROCKS! I’ve never had the slightest feeling that they are not worth every penny of the minimal cut they take, and they’ve never dropped the ball once in terms of resolving any questions I had. I don’t know how they do it with the money they make, but they are the best–a great promotional addition.

Sonicbids is basically gig “payola” - they’ve set themseleves up as a gatekeeper. And liike some otherfolks have said, why not have the musicians who don’t get in finance the ones who do!

Sonicbids is an immoral Ponzi scam, and they should be investigated for the legality of their business plan. They should definately be boycotted by musicians. The musical world does not need another set of gatekeeping rip-off artists.

Probably the people we should be talking to is the Massachsetts Attorney General.

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=cagohomepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Cago

Interestingly enough March 2-8 is National Consumer Protection Week. I suggest that anyone who feels like I do, send their complaint to the Massachusets Attorney General.

If enough of us relate our experiences, they might actually look into their business practices.

I’ve been playing out since the early 80s. I’ve seen a fair number of rip-offs, but this one is reaching new heights. These guys should be investigated.

What’s sad is how club are going to start making easy money by requiring people to submit using Sonicbids. Recently, Uncommon Grounds in Chicago required people to submit through Sonicbids to audition for their annual Jeff Buckley Tribute show. I’m thinking it not only makes there life easier, but they also make money! Thy don’t make money from our press kits. This is a sick concept if I’m right.

Jennifer Taylor said this: What has become clear to me in my experience over the last year with Sonicbids is, as others have mentioned, the vast majority of musicians who are not accepted are paying the tiny minority of musicians that are accepted. Musicians subsidizing musician…

This is exactly what is happening. I also have a unique second theory: The problem is it’s actually too cheap to join Sonicbids at $5 a month. Here’s why: Everyone joins and it becomes a waste of time!

Here’s a comparison: A service like Taxi costs a few hundred dollars to join and also has $10 submissions fees; however, this website–according to a studio owner I use (Real ii Reel.com)–said Taxi is legit (he know the president well who speaks at his music conferences in Detroit) but he also warned one must be very specific in their submissions. The pay offs are worth it. Now, a fee for submissions is used to keep things manageable; people would submit to anything. And if the service is quality, it needs to have a higher fee to only attract professionals who are treating music like a business and separate those simply going through the motions.

I’m going to quit using Sonicbids for this year. Nothing will replace dedicated, grass roots publicity, and sadly, all musicians must first realize their draw is what gives their credibility in the business sense, not only the quality of their music.

Mike Vial

–Jme Medina
http://www.jmemedina.com

I had signed up for the free trial and once I saw how high the submission fees were, I IMMEDIATELY canceled. There is absolutely no way in hell I’m going to pay as much as $60 freakin’ dollars to submit to a listing when there are millions of members all fighting for the same scraps.

I kind of figured Sonicbids was dodgy. I’m on Taxi now and I’m much, much happier. The fees versus the service are much more reasonable and I see people getting better results with a lot less complaining.

We found a MUCH better service that doesn’t have the BS, doesn’t look like a cartoon, understands the struggling musician and works FOR us, and has customer service reps online up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Even on holidays!

http://www.powerpresskits.com

myPPK Power Press Kits. NO per-use fees, no pay-to-play. Graphic themes are great and you can make your own theme for cheap. We STRONGLY recommend everyone who has been scammed by soncibids check out Power Press Kits.

I know that doesn’t seem like the 21st century way doing things, but remember, this is still a people business.

I still say that sonicbids has value as a place to send prospective buyers to avoid the hassle and expense of a physical press kit. But it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to get famous without “applying some shoe leather to the pavement” anytime soon.