Wanna get reviewed?

[Jim Alfredson]

alright, we know that the sonicbids "pay to submit" plan is a total scam, but has their EPK actually done any good for you, Jim?

No.

The whole thing was a waste of money. We never got one single gig or review or festival or anything out of the whole deal. Nothing. Spent well over $300 applying for various things, too.

If you want an EPK that you can mail out to people via a link, it isn't hard to create one on your own website. But frankly to me, that's what a band's website is anyway, isn't it? Just a big EPK.

Getting gigs is all about building personal relationships. Sonicbids is the anti-thesis to that.

[AllenLowe]

I did learn a long time ago that if they want you to pay them to get you gigs, you probably shouldn't do it; this was defintiely a little more sophisticated than that, as they set themselves up as a press-agent type of thing. I don't really know the answer to the gig issue, as I am so out of things these days and off of the scene that I don't know what one does; I remember talking to one agent in the late 1980s who basically said, "come to me when you don't need an agent to get work," meaning that they want groups who are already pretty well set up to work already. The truth is, on a certain professional mid-level (which is the highest I ever achieved) you are likely better off doing it yourself, as unrewarding as it is - I made more money on my own label releases than I made on the one semi-major label release I ever had (Enja) - they stiffed me on the European publishing, never gave any accounting, never sent it anywhere, a total waste (but a nice CD) -

[AllenLowe]

I will also add, Jim, that there are quite a few models of how to do it differently, and the Conference idea we are talking about is one potential key - we need to talk about it fairly soon, as I think you can, through this site and the conference, tie quite a few things together - one guy who hipped me to a lot of this stuff is Marty Khan - great and knowledgeable guy who knows all too well all the BS the industry can sling -

Edited December 13, 2007 by AllenLowe

[jazzypaul]

alright, we know that the sonicbids "pay to submit" plan is a total scam, but has their EPK actually done any good for you, Jim?

No.

The whole thing was a waste of money. We never got one single gig or review or festival or anything out of the whole deal. Nothing. Spent well over $300 applying for various things, too.

If you want an EPK that you can mail out to people via a link, it isn't hard to create one on your own website. But frankly to me, that's what a band's website is anyway, isn't it? Just a big EPK.

Getting gigs is all about building personal relationships. Sonicbids is the anti-thesis to that.

okay. I built a sonicbids EPK, but haven't paid for it yet, so it's not up and running yet.

Our website sucks, and frankly, I have next to no computer expertise, outside of knowing how to rock on photoshop and finale. Unfortunately, neither one will help you to build a website. My brother in law set it up for us (using wordpress as a base), but he doesn't have the time to keep it up to date.

Arrgh.

[marcello]

alright, we know that the sonicbids "pay to submit" plan is a total scam, but has their EPK actually done any good for you, Jim?

No.

The whole thing was a waste of money. We never got one single gig or review or festival or anything out of the whole deal. Nothing. Spent well over $300 applying for various things, too.

If you want an EPK that you can mail out to people via a link, it isn't hard to create one on your own website. But frankly to me, that's what a band's website is anyway, isn't it? Just a big EPK.

Getting gigs is all about building personal relationships. Sonicbids is the anti-thesis to that.

Jim, a EPK is most useful after you've got yhe gig for press purposes.

Mailing of a physical cd and a follow up call is best, but that's hard to do for Europe!

I suggest send some cds out for airplay to select radio stations (in Europe) as a start.

You may want to convert your albums to a higher resolution file, zip the file and send them via the internet. Many overseas radio stations will be willing to accecpt them that way, along with a PDF of the artwork and liners.

A lot of this advertising/EPK?music distribution is going to change soon with hi res, bundeled content that you'll be able to send to venues.

One bundle with DVD quality video, Hi res music files, realtime connection to Organissimo and or bolgs, high quality live shows etc, that can help show what you can do.