Just back from Toronto where I attended NXNE.

I moderated a panel with the guys who book SXSW, CMJ, Eurosonic and Hillside Festival and the topic was “I’m a Band, can I Play Your Festival?” I loved the guys on the panel, they were all pretty engaged and entertaining, and we had a great turnout too. (A special thanks to Ruud from Eurosonic who missed the awesome Netherlands (4) – France (1) game to be on the panel. If you love football as much as I do, you know that’s a big deal.)

Basically, it boils down to this: always keep your Sonicbids EPK updated with the newest info and dates; pay attention to your bio; do use social media like Facebook and MySpace; look to play gigs outside your local area; befriend bloggers and get write-ups; don’t give up even if you are rejected the first try; and (of course) play/write great music.

After the panel I had the chance to catch up with a number of Sonicbids members, which I always love. The guys from Hey Mister told me that they had booked a number of dates since March 2008 when they joined Sonicbids including MyCoke.com, Mobfest, NXNE and the Denny’s adopt-a-band program. This is the stuff that makes my job fun and rewarding.

I also had a great time hosting my first member get-together at the restaurant Kit Kat on King Street (do check it out, it’s an awesome little place). My plan over the next year is to spend as much time in different cities meeting Sonicbids members in informal settings like lunches and coffee shops and to hear straight from you what we need to do to make Sonicbids better. There is nothing quite like hitting the road for me and meeting our community. I love it.

At the lunch I met with Maurice from Whiteboy Slim (Canada); Eric, Justin and their manager Chris from Dean Lickyer (Canada); Rocco and Matt from This is Radio Freedom (UK), Greg from Flowers from Hell (Canada and UK), Lenka from Sisters of Sheyville (from the Czech Republic and now living in Canada) and — as luck would have it — our lovely bartender Stella also happened to be a Sonicbids member (I can’t tell you how many of these random meetings I have with Sonicbidders). This is what I am talking about when I say “the artistic middle class”.

All these bands/artists were playing NXNE through Sonicbids but we had a good chat about the things they love about the site (email alerts; tons of gigs; convenience; great information; etc.) and of course they gave me some candid feedback about what needs to change. Some of the stuff that I heard (and of course I know about many of these through the forums and we are already working on changes):

- The way the status manager works needs to change, promoters just don’t get back to all the submitting bands by the time they say (or ever);
- Offer more visibility into how promoters review the bands that submitted to their listing (i.e. how Sonicbids works on the other end);
- Allow bands to leave feedback on listings;
- Change the whole “All genres accepted” listings as that’s not the case most of the times;
- It would be great to have some visibility into how many submissions a gig listing gets (ranges, not necessarily exact numbers);
- Offer more gigs that pay money;
- Do everything we can to get rid of dishonest promoters;

I love getting direct feedback as sometimes it both confirms that we are working on changing the right stuff, and every once in a while, I do hear things that are so damn obvious it just hits you like a club over the head. Expect to see many good changes over the next 90 days and to hear from me about my next get-togethers – that’s a promise.

By the way, go to NXNE next year if you can. It’s a fun festival, casual, the music rocks, their mascot Sketchy is the best damn festival puppet I’ve seen, Toronto is a fantastic city to visit (at least in the summertime), and Canadians are the most hospitable people you’ll ever meet.

Check out the photos from the lunch.

Panos

P.S. Thank you Bambi Blue from TransCanadaRadio.com. I loved our chat.

I love books. Like with girls, I didn’t really care about them until I turned 12 or so (Madonna was a turning point). But nowadays, I hardly ever walk into a Barnes & Noble and not buy one. Kimberly, my wife, thinks I’m a book addict. At least they’re a legal high.

Anyway, Jim Champy, the author of a seminal business book called “Reengineering the Corporation” recently wrote a whole chapter about Sonicbids in his new book called “Outsmart! How To Do What Your Competitors Can’t”. As an obsessive book reader, I find that pretty cool.

So, besides reading about Sonicbids, why should you care about Outsmart? For starters, because starting a business and competing for customers is no different than starting a band and working hard to get a following. It takes energy, time, perseverance and, most importantly, you realize that there’s only one thing that matters and that’s hard work.

Artists and entrepreneurs have more in common than they think. They both start with a blank piece of paper (or canvas) and what they make of it is what makes all the difference. Personally, I feel that you can learn more about how to make a living in the music business by reading business and marketing books (and the Wall Street Journal) than by reading boring trade mags.

If you have time and are thirsty for some good new marketing tricks, check out Outsmart! And no, I do not get royalties.

Panos