Great. Finally. I was just hoping for something like that.

I am disappointed. We were Sonicbids members for years–and still have an active page, although we no longer subscribe. We are not permitted to comment on gigs for which Ron was selected—this seems very unfair, not only to us but to your current customers.

We have a lot to say and it might be worth signing up for a week to get it said!!!!

This should have been done right from the outset. It will make the promoters more accountable. This is one reason why ebay has been so successful.

Can I review gigs that I investigated and then didn’t submit too after what I found out about them?

While there are lots of legitimate and good gigs on sonicbids, there have also been some real shady ones. All you have to do is investigate them a bit to find out.

Thanks for the comments and more importantly thanks to everyone who’s tried out the new rating/review system. Artists have posted over 400 reviews in just 1 week!

Jackie and TJR,

we decided to restrict reviews to only active artists that submitted to the gig mainly to combat spam. Last month when we gave artists the ability to add photos to gig listings, we saw a lot of deactivated artists spamming listings with shameless self-promotion. We ended up having to block deactivated artists from uploading photos as a result and didn’t want to go through the same thing again with reviews. Nothing is set in stone however, we’re keeping a close eye on how people are using reviews and plan on making updates to the system based on what we see.

I am looking forward to leaving reviews of gigs. But I would actually like to leave reviews of opportunities too. something like, “Don’t do it. too expensive.”

Maybe I am too proud of myself but I find it amazing that I have such a good following and a large mailing list and I sell my cds but I don’t often get selected. Or like when I did get selected for that girls with guitars thing in New Jersey they wanted me to pay $80 to play. Are you nuts? I live three hours away and I should pay $80 to perform?

I am a member of sonic bids for several years now. And yes, I have been selected for a few things. But compared to how many entries? It hasn’t been cost effective.

I think it would be a nice idea to know how many entries you already have before I submit to, for example, the john lennon songwriting contest. It’s expensive and my chances of winning are so slim — don’t you get like 100,000 entries? Forget it.

ALSO, I hate that I am locked into country. or folk. the country people say I am too folk. the folk people say I am too country. Why can’t you let me pick what I am instead of giving me categories that confine me?

I’m re-reading this. I hope I’m not being too negative. I like sonic bids and that’s why I keep my membership active. I have just found it to be a little disappointing.

I wish you had a classified section where we could buy and sell instruments or advertise for a bass player.

Enough. keep up the good work.
Lisa Dudley
p.s. I haven’t been able to figure out how to leave feedback for the gigs you sent me an email about. It keeps saying I have to log in and when I log in the page vanishes.

Hey Lisa,

Thanks so much for posting your thoughts. Don’t worry about sounding “too negative.” Frank and honest feedback about what doesn’t work is exactly what we need to help us continually improve Sonicbids.

Although we don’t disclose how many submissions a listing gets, we recently added a “Pick-o-Meter” to all gig listings which will help give you an idea of how picky the promoter is based on how many submissions they get, how many they select and how their submission/selection ratio compares to similar gigs. Get the details here.

I agree that our genre system could use some improvement to allow for more more specific genre choices. The reason we don’t let artists write in their own genre is because when promoters and artists pick from the same genre list it helps us to recommend appropriate gigs. I’d like to figure out a way to let artists pick a genre that’s perfect for them while still being able to keep things organized.

Adding a classified section to Sonicbids is an idea that we’ve kicked around a bit. If we see more artists are interested it’s something we may explore further.

Lastly your trouble with the login box is something we’re hoping to fix with a “Remember Me” checkbox that will keep you logged in for 2 weeks. So when you get an email from us and click a link you’ll arrive on the page already logged in. In the meantime I took some quick screen shots to walk you through how to login and end up on the correct page. See them here.

Thanks again for posting.

It is ashamed that we cannot rate gig submission for individuals that do not respond or communicate with you when you’ve submitted to a gig. I think that would be more helpful and beneficial to members of this site because it lets them know who/who not to submit because of how other sonicbids members have been treated. You might want to rethink this process or come up with something so that sonicbids members can be aware of gigs that post gigs but never respond to members, just take the money and run.

I like this idea very much. My only hope is that being honest won’t affect our chances with the promoter in the future. I wish gigs that we submit to were forced to give better feedback though as to why we weren’t chosen. At times I feel like my profile isn’t looked at, they just take my money. A better review system (from promoters) would be great – also, it is frustrating that many events don’t use the status update feature.

THANKS!

I think this really needs to be anonymous in order to be effective. It doesn’t directly benefit me to warn others against “bad” gigs, but it does potentially harm me. You are already only allowing select individuals to respond via “handpicking,” so why not allow them to do so anonymously?

As a promoter & one who tries hard to give indie bands something worthwhile, I look forward to this rating system. However, I DO feel it should be based on actual performance, not rejected submissions. An artist can get the wrong idea at first based on false impressions. There are many similar-looking opportunities on SonicBids. Some artists have been scammed in the past and may not understand you are doing it differently till they work with you. You should be rated on your OPPORTUNITY, since that is what SonicBids is about.

If a promoter is misbehaving with submissions or being otherwise creepy, I think it would be better to have a general ‘Complaints’ section where artists can leave that info. If there is a pattern of such complaints, SonicBids could investigate those promoters for abuse without a big public fuss and, if true, THEN flag their site with a warning, such as:

15 submission complaints
0 performance complaints.
***** rated five stars by past artists

…that way, a promoter’s hard-earned reputation can’t be ruined by one resentful nut and their good work is displayed also.

In my experience, SonicBids is loyal to artists AND promoters and tries to do right by both. They have to, the promoters provide the opportunities and the artists determine their site’s reputation. A rating system would be a major improvement because it would also let the artists determine an opportunity’s reputation.

But it should be fair and resistant to flaming and tampering. A promoter encounters difficulties along the way. Even with professional conduct, conditions vary and some opportunities will turn out better than others.

Geza X
Satellite Park Recording