Thanks so much for meeting with us and listening to what we had to say. I’ve always been a fan of SonicBids, but it’s really cool to have that personal connection. Thanks for working hard to give this great tool to musicians.!
~Jessi

It was great to meet you, Adam and all the different musicians and people that use sonic bids. Thanks for being so hands on and open to our ideas.

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

Hi Panos,
First, let us say thank you! Sonicbids is a great resource, and as we grow in our career, we hope to continue expanding our use of Sonicbids to it’s fullest potential.

These are the points that others have brought to your attention that we’d like to touch on:

- “We need to offer a whole lot more information with our gig listings. Right now, the way that gig listings are designed, don’t always give the necessary
information to decide if something is always appropriate to submit to;”
(In Him): Agreed. For instance, there are times we’ve looked into submitting to radio stations, but have to contact them to find out if they pay royalties. Also, having colleges for instance state that compensation is negotiable is alright, but knowing a price range in which the college can budget is helpful.

- “The ability to read and leave feedback for promoters and listings is important. In general, more information sharing is a must;”
(In Him): Absolutely! Out of the gigs we’ve submitted to, only 2 have sent emails giving their prefered email address. This makes contact very difficult when trying to track down a promoter who doesn’t provide submission status in the alotted timeframe. Also, the availability to provide constructive feedback to promoters would be a great tool. This would allow other artists wishing to consider investing their time and money in working with that promoter the chance to get another artist’s point of view. It would also allow an artist to thank a promoter for timely and curtius communication, even if they weren’t selected. For instance, I submitted us to a festival, and a few days after submitting I contacted the promoter (who did send a prefered email address) an email stating that there was one day of the festival that we wouldn’t be available. The gentleman was very kind, and he thanked me for letting him know.

- “Artists want to get feedback too;”
(In Him): Yes! There are also times where we’ve wondered why we were not selected for an opportunity, and getting constructive feedback would be very beneficial for artists in such an instance. We’ve only had one promoter tell us why we weren’t selected, and it was due to unforseen circumstances on their end.

- “The whole “all genres” thing in the gig listings is annoying. No festival books all kinds of genres;”
(In Him): Very true. I came across a confusing gig opportunity just a few days ago. it was a college who said they accepted “All genres”, but in their description they stated spacific genres that they were “really looking for”. I realize that it is the artist’s responsibility to do research before submitting to an opportunity, but it’s a two-way street. The promoter should also consider exactly what they are placing in the given opportunity.

- “It would be great if for certain types of gig listings (like colleges), we enable artists to choose an auto-fill options so you don’t have to type in
the same answers over and over again;”
(in Him): True, although this one isn’t as big for us. Separate word processor documents work well for us. But, it is completely understood that this is not always the case for all artists.

- “The status manager is problematic and it needs to change. Too many promoters just don’t ever bother getting back to bands after they submit and pay their
hard earned money;”
(In Him): This is our biggest complaint!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, I can’t stress this enough! As an artist, I shouldn’t need to hunt down each and every promoter in order to ask them to update our status!
When the 2008/2009 college school year begins, I will try (for at least the third time) to contact a promoter who was supposed to give us a status update by April of 2008…
I really hate to say this, because I find Sonicbids very resourceful, but this is the main thing that makes us wonder if we should pay in December to renew. In saying that however, I would like to thank all at Sonicbids for partnering with BMI to allow BMI artist’s a free one-year membership.

- “More gig listings that offer access to radio stations and colleges would be great;”
(In Him): Could you expand on the exact meaning of this piece of feedback?

Thank you again Panos and all at Sonicbids for all you do! I honestly hope that our feedback here has not come as rude or unthoughtful in any way, but that it was constructive.
Keep up the great work, and have a wonderful week!

Andy and miranda – In Him

Hi again,
We forgot to ask: How can we find out if you will be having a member session near us?
Thanks again for everything, and have a wonderful week!

Andy and Miranda – In Him

Andy and Miranda,
Thanks for the thorough note, I really appreciate it. A couple of quick comments related to your post:

1. The Status Manager issue is a top priority for us. We are working hard at changing this and I should be announcing changes to the feature by early September (also our planned launch);

2. If you give me the closest major city to you, I will check into the possibility of organizing a member event there.

Again, keep the feedback coming.

Panos

Hello, I live in Santa Cruz, between San Francisco and Monterey. Are you planning on having a Central CA meeting any time soon? I’d love to attend. Please let me know. Thanks

Thanks Stephen. I’d love to do a Central CA meeting in the next few months. Not sure when but perhaps combine one with an LA and SF one. Feel free to reach out to me to see if we can arrange one.