Hello friends!

Well, it’s hard to believe SXSW already over and I’m already back in action at the Sonicbids office in Boston. It was a great time and if you don’t mind, let me share some of my experiences. SXSW is a cool event and the city of Austin is fantastic; this was a first for me to travel there and attend the event and while it was a lot of work, I also had a great time.

Most of my days during SXSW were spent at the Sonicbids Booth at the conference trade show. Here I met a lot of existing Sonicbids members (both artists and promoters) and got some great feedback and ideas. Being in Member Relations, I get to talk to folks all the time via phone and email, but you really can’t beat a productive face-to-face conversation. It was awesome to see that people are really excited about what we do and were generally really candid as far as what they’d like to see from Sonicbids in the future.

Interestingly, it was suggested to me a couple times that folks were interested in seeing an official Sonicbids tour in the future. Now, I’m not sure if we’ll be rolling out a full blown tour anytime soon, but we did get our first taste of by hosting our first event at SXSW. On Friday (March 20, 2009), Sonicbids hosted an official SXSW party, presented by the Armed Forces Entertainment and in partnership with The Planetary Group. We held it at Maggie Mae’s, where 13 bands were able play back-to-back between the two stages within the venue. We had bands playing everywhere from across the US, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, and even South Africa. Here’s the full list that played:

Hot Lava: www.sonicbids.com/HotLava
The Forms: www.sonicbids.com/TheForms
Mt. St Helens Vietnam Band: www.sonicbids.com/MtStHelensVietnamBand
Wild Light: www.sonicbids.com/WildLight
Takeover UK: www.sonicbids.com/TheTakeoverUK
Gay Blades: www.sonicbids.com/TheGayBlades
Gliss: www.sonicbids.com/Gliss
The Devil Makes Three: www.sonicbids.com/thedevilmakesthree
Dead Confederate: www.sonicbids.com/deadconfederate
The Parlotones: www.sonicbids.com/theparlotones
The Temper Trap: www.sonicbids.com/TheTemperTrap
The Beat Poets: www.sonicbids.com/TheBeatPoets
Sprengjuhollin: www.sonicbids.com/Sprengjuhollin

And okay, I play favorites: I absolutely loved The Temper Trap, The Beat Poets and the Parlotones especially — but I really do mean it when I say that I was so impressed by all of our bands that played; everyone was fantastic!

During the party, we gave out 1,000 bags full of cool swag like hats, CDs, discounts on musicians gear, and other little fun thingamabobs. We also held our raffle giving away a Pro Tools 8 Studio Giveaway Package, a Taylor SolidBody Classic Electric Guitar, a Guitar Amp, Pocket Pod, Pod Studio (courtsey of Line 6) and a Sonicbids lifetime membership. Jim, Panos and also Christian from Catchpenny (winners of the Armed Forces Entertainment “Entertainers of the Year” award) helped draw the lucky winners. A huge, HUGE thanks to all our partner friends that made the party such a success with either helping to promote the party, staff it or by supporting us with goodies to give out to party attendees: Yamaha, Sweetwater, Jakprints, Onitsuka Tiger, Bambu and Musician Atlas.

In addition to the tradeshow and party, we of course went out to see some of the nearly 400 bands that booked their SXSW gig using Sonicbids. We took some great video footage and interviewed some bands as well. Check out our Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/sonicbids to see just a handful of them (I wish I could have seen them all!). You can also view a TON more photos and on our Facebook and on Flickr.

If we saw you there, thanks for joining us for another great event; if we missed you, we’ll see you next year!

Tess

Hello friends,

It’s time to hit the road again, this time to sunny Austin for SXSW! I can’t express how excited I am to get into some nice weather and speak with a lot of fine folks while I’m there – not to mention seeing shows from the nearly 400 bands that booked their SXSW gig using Sonicbids.

In case you haven’t heard yet, we’re hosting an Official SXSW party at Maggie Mae’s on Friday, March 20 from 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Of course, you are cordially invited to join us… but if you RSVP in advance, or present the printed invitations/laminates we’ll be distributing on site, you will have “priority access” to the party. (Yup, that means you’ll get to cut the line.) You can RSVP and also check out the 13 amazing bands that will be playing HERE.

Be sure to also stop by the Sonicbids booth at the trade show (you can’t miss us; we’ll be right across from the Stevie Ray Vaughan Exhibit). While you’re there, don’t forget to enter our giveaways… and let me tell you: we’re not messing around with these giveaways. You could win a Pro Tools 8 Studio Giveaway Package, a Taylor SolidBody Classic Electric Guitar, a Guitar Amp, Pocket Pod, Pod Studio (courtsey of Line 6), or a Sonicbids lifetime membership!

You can get your fill of industry tips and info by checking out the “Artist As Entrepreneur” panel that our very own Panos Panay will be moderating, Wednesday at 1:30.  And if that’s not enough for you, Sonicbids communications guru Adam Ritchie will be part of the “Crash Course #4: Online Resources panel” Wednesday at 3:00.

Last but not least, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @SonicbidsTess since I’ll be traveling around the conference taking photos, doing interviews, video blogging—all that fun stuff.  I can’t wait to see you in Austin.

Until then,
Tess