The past few weeks have been absolutely insane for me (so I apologize for the dearth of posts).

Amidst all this insanity, we found time to host a “tweetup” with Scott and Brent (the creative head in charge of all music programming) from South By Southwest this past Wednesday. I am sure many of you wonder what on earth is a tweetup and I will admit I had no idea myself until this week. You can read more here. (Basically, a party where folks are encouraged to tweet – go figure).

Seven tips that I picked up by talking with Brent about what they look for when booking artists:

1. Have Live Video. Yup, pretty obvious. Brent says that even a rough live video, shot with an iPhone tells him more about a band’s energy and audience rapport than say a sleek video. And it makes all the difference in the world.
2. Be creative with your EPK. Don’t use your Sonicbids EPK bio page to give folks a lengthy dissertation on you life’s story (“I was born in so-so in 1984 and always loved music”). Be witty, be creative, have fun with it. It tells a lot to the perspective booker.
3. Show you care. Don’t treat building your EPK and your submission as drudgery. Take time to pick cool photos (ideally live shots), put together the best songs you have, fill out your calendar shows, and in general, show you care.
4. Build your online presence. Now at Sonicbids, we offer promoters like the folks from SXSW access to things like number of MySpace friends, latest blog posts about a band, Last.fm listens, etc. Folks like SXSW don’t just want to know what you say about yourself – they want to know what others say about you too.
5. Get some bloggers to review you. Yes, reviews matter. And nowadays, getting some cool bloggers to talk about your music maybe even more important than a review in your local paper.
6. Show you can draw a crowd. Ultimately, the club that’s showcasing you at SXSW needs to sell beer to pay the bills. Make sure you communicate in your EPK (photos, video, calendar dates with capacities, reviews) that you know how to pull them in.
7. Build up your relationships. Old-school, right? Perhaps, but relationships matter. I can’t tell you how many times I meet bands that never bother following up, staying in touch etc. If you want to make a living playing your music, you will need to hone this skill. Yes, having your hometown alt-weekly writer, or some indie music blogger put in a word for you can make a difference. Business is, after all, all about relationships.

Panos

Had a quick pop into CMJ this morning to moderate a panel titled “Specific Business Concepts Applied For The Modern Day Music Artist”. Had great participation from the audience and you can see some of the tweets here. My  fellow panelists, which included Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby, Rick Goetz, from MusicianCoaching.com, Jonathan Lutzky from Masur Law and PT Walkley, Artist/Musician, did a great job. One of the most lively panels I’ve been on.

Off to Italy for business, will pick up when I return.

Panos

One of the cool listings we had on Sonicbids the past few weeks resulted in  Family of the Year opening for Ben Folds and the Boston Pops last night.

I did not have the chance to attend the concert but I saw this awesome clip of the band on the local news channel NECN. We are committed to keep bringing more open slot listings on Sonicbids.

Panos

P.S. Update:  Just got this awesome photo from Tess who went to the show.