You know what really grinds my gears?
(You can ignore the Family Guy reference if you like.)

I feel like the striking majority of musicians these days are not embracing their creativity – not in the music itself (there are some phenomenal independent artists and bands breaking these days), but the marketing strategies used to promote their music. To be more specific, I’ve noticed quite a bit of resorting to the now-standard social media networks, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Using these tools presents a band that is completely transparent to its fan base and the media, but in doing so, you have to ask yourself:

1)     Is publicizing your every move what you really want to do?
2)     Is it going to help you stand out?

I am not saying that having a connection to the public through social media is not advisable, because it’s clearly a tried-and-true promotional strategy and measure of a musician’s popularity. However, I am calling for a renaissance of creative music marketing, utilizing new technology and innovation in conjunction with social media tools. One of the problems I see with using social media using the popular model is over-transparency without interactivity: you’re keeping your fans in the loop with your every move, while they aren’t given the opportunity to respond except for a MySpace comment that probably won’t actually be read by the artist, for instance. If fans get bored of your tweets, they start to fall off the map, like Kayne West’s respect after this year’s MTV VMAs. Finally, by restricting yourself to social media, you’re inherently restricting yourself to those who use those respective social networks. (How can you share your tweets with British youth if they don’t use Twitter at all, according to this article?) (more…)

Greetings from Australia,

On 15^th – 18^th October I was fortunate enough to head over to One Movement Festival Perth. One Movement was impressive and something that the west coast of Australia had never seen before: a four day conference, music festival and fringe festival. Over four days, I got to meet with some industry greats and saw some amazing festival performances and showcases.

The One Movement Conference, featured One Movement MUSEXPO Asia Pacific and One Movement – The Independent Times, presents panels, forums, interviews and “breakout” networking opportunities for the industry leaders of today and the future. One Movement Showcase Music Festival showcased more than 80 export ready acts on one festival site over two days in front of approx 10,000 music fans. (more…)

Well, it’s hard to believe CMJ has come and gone.  Mike wrote an awesome recap about some of the artist showcases we saw, but I thought I’d give some other highlights about the conference.

I spent my days with Aliki at the tradeshow and, as always, I loved meeting our members face to face. If there’s one thing I can say, is that Sonicbids has some of the craziest, hilarious and most talented artists in the world!  We took some great photos, videos (more on that below), and even found some time at the end to pal around with our friends like Paul Bodlovich, the Executive Director of WAMi – that’s him and me underneath the box he put on my head!

Mike spent a lot of time at the Artist Lounge at the Bowery, meeting and talking with more members.  Over there, he was also giving away free D’Addario strings – a must have when you’re touring and rocking a bit too hard on that guitar. (more…)

Tuesday @ Crash Mansion/BLVD
Sydney Wayser was someone I had been meaning to see for a few months, and her set at Crash Mansion was really enjoyable. Backed by a guitarist, drummer, and standup bassist/toy pianist, the quartet clearly has musical chops but show considerable restraint. They understand how less-is-more works; “Banjo Bayou” has a Spoon-like swagger and climaxes without a desire to build a loud crescendo. It just doesn’t need to.

Later in the evening, I heard the opening notes of “And the Hazy Sea” upstairs at BLVD, and was in for a set of several songs by Cymbals Eat Guitars. I saw their show in Boston earlier this summer, and now believe Joseph D’Agostino has some of the best vocals in rock and roll these days. Like Malkmus he can be hushed and quiet one second, only to explode into a scream that never runs away from him, never cracks unless he wants it to. The quartet played several shows during CMJ’s duration; this was not going to be their best attended (maybe 25 people there?), but it did not seem not affect the members. (more…)

Here’s one artist’s experience using Sonicbids and thoughts on his musical successes. Adam Payne has been a member of Sonicbids since July 21, 2004 and has booked over 200 gigs using Sonicbids to date.

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To say that Sonicbids has been a huge help to my musical career would certainly be an understatement.  I will dust off Bette Midler’s well-known words and say that Sonicbids has been the wind beneath my wings!  For real.

I’ve booked over 200 gigs with this company, not to mention the countless gigs I obtained using Sonicbids connections.  Also, I’ve built lasting, beneficial relationships with fellow Sonicbids artists, booking agents, and others in the music industry.  The Sonicbids staff do an exceptional job of not only helping you with an issue or concern, but more importantly, they truly make you feel appreciated as a member.

Just like anything else, though, Sonicbids is what you make of it.  If you put in the time and effort to understand how to best navigate the site while ‘putting your best brand forward,’ you’ll see a return.  As an artist, I find comfort in knowing that the opportunites to which I submit have met or exceeded specific standards of quality, which saves me a whole lot of time, effort and energy messing with cold-calls and the like.  Plus, you get a sharp electronic press kit, which is extremely useful in so many ways!

I feel like I have learned a large portion of what I know about this music industry through being a Sonicbids member.  The information and tips for success made available to members are a great resource, and have helped me to avoid some serious pitfalls over the years.  Wow, this probably sounds like an informercial script!  Truth is, I don’t feel as if I am exaggerating at all.  Sonicbids is much more than a place for artists to get gigs; It can be your mentor, manager and booking agent all at the same time.  For independent cats like myself, it can be the momentum that keeps your musical going.

-Adam Payne

Adam Payne’s EPK: www.sonicbids.com/AdamPayne
Adam Payne – Official Website: www.AdamPayne.biz

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For more success stories on Sonicbids, visit www.sonicbids.com/success.

Hey all,

Thought it’d be cool to share that the Sonicbids SXSW Tweetup was a HUGE success and we had a ton of fun!  Thanks to all that came down to our office and spent their evening with us. An extra special thanks to Scott McNearney and Brent Grulke from SXSW for flying in to meet folks and give their insights.

I personally got to meet some awesome members like Adam Payne, Neara Russell, Lauren Flaherty… I even met another Tess from the group Miss Tess! Below are a couple photos for you to check out, but I’d recommend you check out our Facebook event at http://tinyurl.com/SonicbidsTweetup to see a whole bunch of them. (By the way, feel free to tag up those photos if you’re in them or you know who are!)

Finally, it wouldn’t have been a Tweetup without Twitter, so you can check out the hashtag that we used #sonicsxsw. You can click on that to see the tweets and photos that folks who attended posted during and after.

Thanks again for all who attended. We had a blast!

Tess

PS: Panos just posted a blog that you might find interesting also about the Tweetup, “7 Tips To Get You Noticed by SXSW” Check it out!

In case you haven’t already heard about this, on Wednesday 10/28/2009 from 5:30pm through 8:30pm(-ish), we’ll be hosting our very own Tweetup here at the Sonicbids office in Boston.

As you may know, we have an open door policy for our members to drop by anytime, but this night will be extra special, since we’re bringing in a couple of friends from South By Southwest: Brent Grulke (SXSW’s Creative Director who oversees their team that reviews and selects the bands) and Scott McNearney (SXSW’s Sponsorship Manager).

This Tweetup will be a very casual get together, where you’ll get the chance to not only socialize with your fellow local peers and the Sonicbids bunch over food and drinks, but to also meet the folks from SXSW in person and pick their brain on what they look for in their showcasing bands.

So come down and join us next Wednesday; we’d love to see you!

RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/SonicbidsTweetup

Tess and The Sonicbids Team

PS: If you can’t make it, have a listen to this phone interview we did with Brad First from SXSW’s selection committee.

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UPDATE on 10/28/09:
The Tweetup is today! The hashtag to follow and tweet to is #sonicsxsw

Also, be sure to say “hi” to our Sonicbids Twitterers:

Me (Tess) for support: http://www.twitter.com/sonicbidstess
Lou (product): http://www.twitter.com/sonicbidslou
Benjy (fresh gigs & application deadlines): http://www.twitter.com/sonicbidsbenjy