Most of you bands are probably at least passingly familiar with Sonicbids - it's a subscription service where you pay $60/year to have them host an EPK that you can then submit to things such as festivals, licensing opportunities and other venues (for additional fees, ranging from $5-50).

Sonicbids has come in handy for us a few times - we used it to apply to the two NXNE festivals that ARCTIC has attended, plus New Music West and a few things we didn't get into as well. But we're starting to doubt its value. We already have a perfectly good website. We don't think we're going to do a lot of industry festivals in the next year or two. Many of the other "opportunities" are somewhat dubious - paying someone to REVIEW your CD, or have a chance at song contests and compilations CDs from obscure little places. Sometimes it reminds me of those scam poetry contests where they tell you you've been specially selected and then invite you to buy a copy of the "publication".

So overall, we don't use it much. The catch is, of course, that when you DO want to apply for something, Sonicbids is sometimes the ONLY submission method accepted. This is troubling: it's becoming a monopoly and forcing indie artists to pay Sonicbids AND then pay the promoter in situations when they would only have had to send in a printed press kit in the past. More troubling to me is that venues are starting to use it as a method of screening bands - the Pit Pub at UBC, for example, charges a $5 fee to consider a band. This is uncomfortably close to pay-to-play. Since it's a low fee, most people just shrug it off as being the same cost as mailing a printed press kit - but these things add up, and they set a bad precedent. If venues start to realize they can CHARGE you to listen to your music, how much more expensive is it going to be to book a tour than it already is?

I'm curious what others are doing or not doing about Sonicbids. Is it worth it to you? Is it a necessary evil that we all have to be part of to be taken seriously? Or is it yet another waste of the limited funds that indie musicians have to work with?

Kirsten