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

Over the past year we’ve experimented with a number of free listings on Sonicbids, sponsored by consumer brands (Gap, Converse, etc.) They’ve been very successful in terms of attracting thousands of submissions (their objective) but not always in getting only the highest caliber of bands.

There are a number of reasons why we don’t have all submissions be free (I’ve covered the topic on a number of occasions), and Seth Godin articulates its very well in a blog post called “If Craigslist cost $1”.

I’d love your thoughts.

Panos

Yes, that’s me in the photo. In my apartment (which doubled as Sonicbids’ office for the first year), on my first official day as Sonicbids’ full time founder. The date on the photo (if you squint, you’ll see it on the left) is September 11, 2000 – exactly nine years ago. I am actually pretending to make a call because there wasn’t anyone to call just yet.

It’s funny thing, starting a business (or a band for that matter). You jump into the great unknown and all you have is faith. Faith in your vision, faith in your self, faith in your conviction that you can create something out of an idea. And I guess you pray for good luck.

Not sure if this is really an official birthday as the site was not launched until February 25, 2001; and there was nothing to do with Sonicbids.com, really, until June 2001 when you could first build at EPK. Gig Listings? We didn’t really have them until January 2002.

What do I think when I look back at the last nine years? Not much, other than gratitude — and urgency because time goes much faster than I’d like.  I prefer to look forward and to all the things that Sonicbids can be and do. The future’s a lot more fun than the past.

In the meantime, thank you for being a part (and a co-writer) of this amazing story.

Panos

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Boston-based company called Charity Partners is buying tickets for seats at shows of major artists like the Stones, Coldplay, etc., marking them up, selling them at aftermarket prices and donating the proceeds from the difference to charity.

Pretty cool concept as the ticket buyer actually gets the tax credit for the part of the re-sell ticket price that goes to charity. A number of major artists have given their blessing.

Would you do it? Is it promoting scalping and unsustainably high ticket prices? Should the artist get the tax credit? Either way, I personally love the creativity of it.

Panos

I was in San Francisco last weekend and had the chance to experience (and run) the 98th annual Bay To Breakers 12K road race. Well, calling it a road race would be a bit like calling Elvis a “singer” – it just doesn’t do it justice.

Anyway, though this blog post is really a lame excuse to post the picture above of me and the Elvis dudes (really, click on it), I was also struck by all the places that featured live music: at the starting line; all along the course; at a festival following the race called “Footstock”.

My point is, everyone talks about the crisis the music business is in but all you have to do is look around you and you’ll see that indie music is performed at more places than ever before. I call this a renaissance not a crisis.

Like Malcolm Gladwell says, to beat Goliath you just have to fight the battle using unconventional means. Like getting paid to perform at road races for thousands of captive spectators.

Panos

I wrote the piece below as an op-ed for Mass High Tech.

When I started Sonicbids nearly eight years ago, the last place I expected I would get support from was City Hall. Granted, I was born and raised in Europe where government handouts are de rigueur; but as an entrepreneur in the early 2000’s it had never crossed my mind. (Obviously, today is another story.)

In the early days of Sonicbids I ran the company out of a place called Tech Space in the South End, and one day some City Hall people stopped by for (seemingly) one of those visits that civil servants tend to have: a lot of polite talking, attentive listening, smiling, etc. but of little tangible substance.

I remember saying to one of them “Here I am, taking all this risk to get a business going, working hard to employ people, paying Boston rents and Boston salaries, but what is City Hall doing for businesses like Sonicbids? I mean, if I have a barbershop, I can get assistance because I have a “storefront”; if I’m Gillette, I have everyone’s ear. Somehow Sonicbids, as an Internet business falls in no man’s land – but we are the future of this town”.

That forceful comment (along with, I guess, my persistent nature) ended up creating a chain of events that led to City Hall giving us a low-six-figure loan to help us hire three new people in 2005; and a few years later another loan that enabled us to build-out and move to our own 15,000 sq.ft. office space in the South End. (Sonicbids has grown from just about ten people in 2005 when we got the loan to nearly 50 today – with that early loan providing the critical tipping point.)

Just as importantly, it sparked a drive within me to engage and educate other entrepreneurs and public officials about the common sense and business-sense that public-private alliances make.

I’ve since co-founded a program, along with City Hall, called Boston Young Entrepreneurs to help young people make their business ideas a reality; I co-chaired a City-backed non-profit called CREATE Boston that helps bolster Boston’s creative economy; I am the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council at my alma mater, Berklee College of Music; and I am also on the Board of Directors of a new initiative by Mayor Menino called Boston World Partnerships, that helps connect companies and professionals with Boston’s talent pool.

I do all this mostly because it’s my way of giving back to a city that I feel has given me a lot (To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected). But I also do this because it just makes great business sense.

Through my involvement with these initiatives, I have gotten to meet all kinds of people that either directly or tangentially have helped Sonicbids grow in size and stature. I’ve met financiers and venture capitalists; journalists and writers; business partners and future employees; heck, even architects and furniture makers; all of which in one way or another have become part of the Sonicbids story and growth.

As tech entrepreneurs and business people we are trained to focus on the target – to keep the eye on the prize – and just go for it. We think of life outside of business and family as a distraction, a waste of time, something for someone else. We also tend to think that civic engagement is not suitable for people of our drive and ambition and capitalist leanings – it’s just a bit too mushy, too touchy feely, too darn lefty.

But the truth is that our businesses are only as good as the people they employ. And nothing shapes people more than the very communities they are a part of, the social systems that support them, the societies they form and sustain. And our businesses don’t function outside of these institutions  – they rather shape and are shaped by them and the quality of the people that govern and participate in them.

So go out there and get involved. It will not just make you feel great – it will also help you and you business grow.

Panos

I’m writing this post en route to Los Angeles. On a plane. On a Virgin America plane for that matter.

I’ve been a Virgin fan for years and I always take Virgin Atlantic when I travel to Europe. I love their ethos, their irreverence to status quo, their customer-focused attitude. So when I heard that Virgin America was starting flights out of Boston to LAX, I jumped on it.

Like Apple, Virgin introduces simple innovations that make you as a customer feel “wow, I was kind of abused before and I didn’t know it”. Apple did that with visual voice mail on the iPhone. Virgin is doing it with Wi-Fi on planes along with (oh, the luxury…) plugs to power up your laptop. Innovation is about simple conveniences, not just whiz-bang gadgetry.

Admittedly, a part of me liked being disconnected while I’m airborne. I use the time to catch up with reading, rest my brain, heck, chat for a change with the person next to me.

But as a consumer, I love it. Why? Because I feel respected and I feel that I am given a choice. Like “What Would Google Do?” says: Give customers control and they will give you their loyalty.

This makes me think of the good old record business. The only business in the world that decided to sue its own customers. Similar to all those other domestic carriers that treat you like you owe them something every time you board their dingy planes (not to mention wanting to take a full bath in anti-bacterial soap as soon as you’re done flying).

It’s simple: Listen to your customers (and fans) and you give them more choices and more control. Do that, and you earn their loyalty forever.

Panos

P.S. Now, Virgin: do the right thing and give the darn Wi-Fi free. Airfares are not exactly cheap.