Hey All,

Check out the Virgin Air Radio Show Here!

If you’re not familiar, the link above is the most recent Virgin America In-Flight Airplay ‘New Music Discovered’ session, courtesy of the Sky Radio Network!  I think it’s pretty cool to listen to some Sonicbids artists tunes and interviews that is currently airing on Virgin America Air Radio.  Much better than the typical elevator-type music you tend to hear on airplanes; that’s never going to make a 5 hour red eye from LA to NYC go fast.

If you like what you hear and you want to check out more, artists interviewed in the session are….

Mike from Carlon: http://www.sonicbids.com/carlon
Justin Levinson: http://www.sonicbids.com/justinlevinson
Dennis from Sentinel: http://www.sonicbids.com/sentinelmusic
Jennifer from Una: http://www.sonicbids.com/Una

Enjoy!
Tess

So by now if you haven’t downloaded a record for free off the internet for free, I applaud you. However, I would also say that you’re a minority within the music community. The debate over whether the industry as well as society in general should accept this fact is now irrelevant, as CD sales have tanked to impressive lows. However, you’ve spent all this time recording your new record. How do you get someone to pay something, ANYTHING for it? Let’s check out a couple of bands who got a bit creative.

So Many Dynamos sold their new CD “The Loud Wars” on their website for $10. However, for just $12, you could get the CD as well as a ticket to the show of your choice on their album release tour. Not a bad deal, right? I was too lazy to jump on this in time for the package to make it to Boston before the show at Great Scott, so I ended up downloading the album for free and paying $15 at the door for the show. There’s a lose-lose…

The Cool Kids were selling flash drives on their tour from the merch table at a fraction of the price of a CD. Also, if you’re touring in a sedan, take note. You can fit about a couple hundred of these in a box that would hold 10 or 20 CDs.

Family of the Year is selling their new EP Where’s the Sun on their website in two different ways. First, you can buy the physical CD for a very reasonable price of $7. Also, they employed the Radiohead model and offered a download of the CD in exchange for your email address and whatever you want to pay for the CD. This will definitely help to expand their email list, as well as get them the gas to make it from point A to point B. I’m seeing these guys open for Ben Folds with the Boston Pops, a gig they booked through Sonicbids! Very excited…

Antiques wrapped a copy of their record in a 12” x 39” poster. You can download the music for free from their site by providing an email address and a zip code (valuable fan data), then enjoy the record and poster as the physical product. Check out the video on their page; the whole package wraps up nicely. The whole idea of coupling your music with another piece of merch is intriguing to me and the rest of the Member Relations team here. Just toss a download card in with a t-shirt and sell it for $2 more, or create your own combination of merch and music. Even if you only make $2, it’s more than if someone were to steal it.

Josh Freese’s recent stunt was closely enough related here that I had to include it. He sold different packages with his CD, each level of payment adding something more and more ridiculous. Packages started at $7 for just a digital download of the CD, and peaked at $75,000, which included going on tour with Josh, him writing and recording a 5 song EP about you, he joined your band for a month, and so on. You really have to check this one out. It’s worth the read.

I recently traveled back home to visit my folks in Cincinnati, Ohio for an 80^th birthday celebration. It was great to see some familiar faces, see how things have changed while away and just catch up with old friends. Even more exciting during the trip was realizing what a small world we live in.

During the family events, we booked a really awesome local duo called Anna & Milovan to perform a few live tunes at our house. My parents had heard the father-daughter team a number of times around town. My mother especially had such high praises for Anna’s voice, and thought they would be a great fit for all ages at our family gathering. Although it was a fairly small event with around 20 people, Anna’s voice filled the room with excitement and liveliness. Milovan’s velvety guitar perfectly complemented her voice.

After an hour of solid performance, everyone in the room had an ear-to-ear grin on their face. I stepped up to talk with them a bit. While we were chatting, I asked if they had ever heard of Sonicbids. As it turns out, they had just joined the Sonicbids community a few weeks earlier to help expand their craft and book more gigs. As Midpoint music festival is an annual favorite in the area, the group heard about the Sonicbids network from friends at the fest.

Although they were relatively new to our site, they were excited to see the extensive opportunities available to bands across the globe. Like many artists, Anna told me she’s working toward being a fulltime performer while also managing another career. After talking to them about Sonicbids and giving them a one-on-one with some tips and tricks on the site, they were even more excited to put their account to work identifying the right gigs in their area and abroad.

What a small world it really is! We have an open door policy at Sonicbids for all our members, and even out of the office, it’s a pleasure meeting Sonicbids bands face to face and sharing their experiences. Check out Anna & Milovan’s EPK here: http://www.sonicbids.com/AnnaAndMilovan

I quit my band a few months ago. That’s a great conversation starter.

To be honest, my heart wasn’t really into it, I was writing songs myself that didn’t really fit our ‘sound’ (we played all-instrumental progressive rock), and it was just too much of a commitment that I didn’t feel was making me happy in the long run.

So what now? I’ve decided to take my creative independence to heart and start a solo project. I’ve been toying with the idea for some time now and have been recording material myself for an EP or two, as well as a full-length record. And, while I’m not technically playing live (since I don’t have a band, yet) or have any great publicity for myself yet, I’ve still got a Sonicbids EPK.  Why would it make any sense for me to have an EPK? A couple of reasons (and not just because I work here!)

A great press kit. A common misconception is that the Sonicbids press kit is a paid version of internet presence, something like a MySpace page. I’ve got a MySpace and a Facebook page for my music, but one must consider who exactly will be viewing each page. Sonicbids press kits are just that — promoters, publicists, judges and others are viewing this to determine if your band is right to work with them. I use my other sites to interact with my friends and small fanbase, provide them with demos of new tunes and updates from my life. Sonicbids’ clear, concise EPK format allows me to organize all of my information into a neat little package for these people to view, because I want to focus this type of viewer on my 4-5 best songs. (more…)

Readers of the SonicBlog know that Benjy and myself were engaged in an epic Twitterwar during the month of March.

Well, it’s now April 1st and Benjy won handily.  His prize was to be the first to own the new USB Powered Air-Conditioned Sonicbids T-shirt.

He even let Tony borrow it for a bit to keep cool when answering support emails:

It’s not on sale to the general public just yet, because there are still some kinks to be worked out.

But if you follow me on Twitter I’ll let you know as soon as they’re available to purchase!

Inspired by the Twitter feud between LeVar Burton and Michael Ian Black, Benjy has thrown down the gauntlet and declared a war against the other Sonicbids staffers on Twitter.  If Tess, Tony or myself are not able to get more Twitter followers than him by the end of March, Benjy has demanded a USB Powered Air-Conditioned Shirt as patronage.

Only you can save us from this fate by following us on Twitter.

Benjy	Lou	Tess	Tony

Hi friends,

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! Just thought I would give a little update about what happened this past week at the Sonicbids office.

Last Thursday we hosted a meeting for the Boston Young Entrepreneurs (BYE). BYE  is a non-profit that helps young entrepreneurs in Boston develop, launch and grow their businesses.  It was actually co-founded by our very own Panos Panay (seriously, does this guy ever get any sleep?) in February, 2005–just four years after founding Sonicbids. It’s a great organization that helps young professionals realize their dreams of starting their own business, which ultimately helps bring business, jobs and capital into the city of Boston. In this crazy economy, I’d say something like that is pretty important! On the third Tuesday of every month, BYE hosts “a business plan presentation by a member entrepreneur,” and then the group analyzes the plan so they can help the member strengthen his or her company.  To learn more about it, check out http://www.bostonyoungentrepreneurs.com/

A bunch of us in the Sonicbids office hung around to see what it was all about (check out some photos I took below) mostly because we realize entrepreneurs and artists aren’t all that different! If you think about it, both groups need to know how to sustain themselves using their talents, find the right niche of people to connect to, and develop a plan to grow their resources… the similarities are endless. There are a lot of resources out there to think about your own business plan as an artist that I encourage you to check out.  I did a quick search through some cool music blogs and here’s just one that I found by Kavit Haria on Inner Rhythm: http://www.innerrhythm.org/blog/how-to-write-your-music-business-plan/

Feel free to post any other articles or links you think might be helpful for your fellow musician-friends.

Enjoy!
Tess