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

THANKS!

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.

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.

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.