Sonicbids Announces No Submission Fees For 60% of Their Listed Gigs
It can be hard for musicians today to get their music out to as many people as possible. With record companies going out of business, and bands reverting to doing everything from booking to marketing to even managing themselves, it’s companies like Sonicbids that are here to aid these hard working musicians along their journey. But at a cost. The saying is true, “Nothing comes for free”, but for a small amount of money, 6$ a month or 50$ a year, Bands have access to submitting to thousands of gigs, marketing and promotional help, a creation of their own EPK, Social media monitoring and career support.
Since the launch of Sonicbids 10 years ago, it has always been the norm that bands have to pay a submission fee for every gig they want to try and book. While bands are spending their hard earned money trying to promote themselves, deal with travel expenses and everything in-between, it didn’t seem fair to make them pay an additional fee for a gig that they would be playing and “maybe” making money off of. So finally Sonicbids CEO/founder Panos Brew has just announced that there will no longer be submission fees for 60% of their listed gigs. (And soon to be 90%). This is a huge step for this company. They are here to help musicians, but like any business, to keep it running they must make a little dough on the side.
Founder/CEO Brew stated that,
“My personal philosophy around them has been pretty simple:
1. Small submission fees act as an effective filter (we currently have 300,000 bands using the site);
2. Money generated provides funding that’s recycled back into the music community (i.e. All expenses Tour of Singapore; 10 bands to play Bonnaroo and get $1,000 each; and thousands other examples on the site)
That said, the fees often have had some undesired byproducts: they discouraged bands from taking risks and applying to more gigs on the site (on average, it takes 9-10 submissions to get a gig) – which meant fewer gigs booked; a whole lot of smaller promoters/venues did not even get one submission; and also many bands ended up submitting to just the “big” listings (say, SXSW or CMJ or Bumbershoot), ignored the rest, and inevitably went disappointed.
Starting last September, we beta tested the concept of removing fees for some of the listings on the site and some amazing things happened: band activity on the site tripled, we got many more smaller venues to join the site, and – much more importantly – over 14,000 new gigs got booked by these “no cost” listings. The only complaint we got? Too many submissions from bands that were not appropriate for the gig.”
So starting today, with the sponsorship of Musician’s Friend, we are launching a new type of listing on the site that we call Token Listings. Each month, as a member of Sonicbids you’ll get 10 or 25 tokens (for Sonic and Supersonic members respectively), which you’ll be able to use to submit to these listings for no added fee.
As of right now 60% of all open listings on Sonicbids are Token Listings. Within 90 days, our goal is to make up to 90% of the listings on the site Token-based. So, your membership just got a whole lot better.
Check out the website for a more in depth look…. http://panosbrew.sonicbids.com/tokenlistings/
Newly Renovated Paradise Rock Club
The Paradise Rock Club has really changed. They have moved the stage to the left more, and really opened up the entire floor. A lot more people can fit in there now which is great. And they still have the upper teer you can go to, so people can still have that sick view looking onto the stage. i’ve been there once so far and it is really great. Its just a little weird because the farther left you go from the stage the harder it is to see, but overall the new adjustments they made worked out really well.
Harpers Ferry Will Close Permanently after Oct 31st show
Because their lease was not renewed, the 40 year old music venue in Allston will close its doors permanently. I can’t not tell you how many amazing shows I have seen there as well as witnessing some of my all time favorite musicians. It is one of my favorite venues in Boston. And now one of the best venues will be gone. And to my astonishment no one stepped up to the plate to buy it out or help renew the lease? Not a single person. If i had the money, I would have saved Harpers Ferry. I’m curious as to what it is going to turn into now. I really hope someones steps up and saves one of the better venues in Boston.
http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2010/10/01/harper-s-ferry-to-close-this-month.aspx
