Yes the focus is all wrong…bands are now in the T-shirt business not the music business, they need to act accordingly. I can only wish that Gang of Four had come out of the gate with a biz plan….

It seems to me that the fundamental issue is that young musicians see music as a career instead of an artistic endeavor. The fact that SXSW is a household name instead of an industry insider convention says a lot about the state of things. Your points about talent ring true indeed

I certainly don’t believe for one minute that SXSW is misrepresenting itself, just that the PR spin and the way the PR is picked up points to the conference as a Music conference and a way for bands to maybe get a deal. I think that’s been an unwavering position for many years. That will only change when the music business becomes a second thought and the unofficial parties become the “official” conference after all…..

Though I also admit that you can get a lot of business work done there as a musician without even having a showcase, it’s true. To say that just because it’s a “music conference” doesn’t mean it’s not a “business conference” would be a little shortsighted. For many, music is their business, and I’d encourage artists to think about theirs that way, too. I don’t mean artists should sell out if given the opportunity, but ideally you’re able to treat it like a business to meet your musical goals (either part-time or as a career).

If you feel SXSW is misrepresenting themselves, let ‘em know. The folks I know there seem open to constructive criticism, though patience is important as the event/organization has been around a while.

Benjy

Thanks for jumping in and thanks for your well-reasoned post. Yet I do have to take you up on your comment about SXSW falling as you say into the hopper of “business conference.” In the 17 years I’ve attended the conference it has never explicitly posed as a business conference and even the PR that was sent out by the SXSW folks this year still pushes it as a music conference and still promotes its ability for you the band or artist to “be discovered” at SXSW. My point is simple, all the buzz bands year over year have always arrived pre-anointed by the powers that be in the music industry. I can not give you one single example of an undiscovered band rocking everyone’s world so much that they got signed on the spot. It would be great to dispel the myth that that is a remotely possible outcome. [You probably read the Ann Powers and Jon Pareles' SXSW round up articles, they are unsure of where the conference is going I believe.]

I would argue that dispelling that myth is not part of your business model at Sonicbids, you *do* the sell the dream. As a professional musician I know exactly what it takes to get my band, Gang of Four, in front of anyone, from our fans to music business types, to filmmakers for soundtrack work, to getting on festivals - it takes a small army and we are still not successful at attaining all that we desire. One thing I do know that works well is always putting our money in the right place. We never had to pay anyone to do anything for us and again I would argue that if you have to pay for a service that may or may not give you a leg up then something is wrong at the most basic level of one’s career - the talent part.

The obvious choice for unsigned artists is to market themselves heavily through music blogs such as this one, leverage anything they have to get on to one of the unofficial parties at SXSW and then hope for the best as nothing is guaranteed and you certainly can’t buy a guarantee. For me personally the heart of SXSW is all the parties surrounding it - I believe much can be learned by networking those, see how other bands do things first hand and be exposed to both sides of the experience…the panels at SXSW have never provided anywhere near that kind of exposure. And the parties are free.

SXSW actually provides an online directory of all badge holder attendees PRIOR to the conference starting, and many use that as a way to make initial connections and set up meetings, but way to many artists and agents and promoters fail to utilize that tool and come unprepared to capitalize on all those folks being there. Of course there are criticisms that SXSW does not work in the same industry capacity as it used to, where a band could come play and get \”discovered\” on the spot. I think that SXSW doesn\’t work that way, but I don\’t think the conference bills itself as that either. But the deeper point about an event not meeting expectations is a solid one, and one we deal with at Sonicbids a lot.

As for preying on the dreams of artists, one call to our fantastic artist relations crew — to find out more about the service and good ways to use it and constructive ways to perform due diligence and potentially NOT use it in certain/many situations — will go a long way to dispel that myth, I think. So many listings and opportunities are extremely tempting, of course, but there are ways to determine prior to making a submission if it\’s going to be the right thing to try to go for rather than treating submissions like lottery tickets.

As for ArtistForce, I spoke with them a bit, and they seem to be primarily about the contracting end of performance arrangements. To be fair, calling it “Sonicbids #2″ is a bit off as we haven’t even seen their service in action yet. I’d encourage you to be patient on the comparisons there. I\’d encourage you to be patient on the comparisons there.

As always, if you ever have ideas or concerns about Sonicbids, feel free to share them with us… we\’re happy to listen, and we always want to keep improving the service for artists.

Benjy

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Benjy Kantor
Business Development Representative
Sonicbids
Artist Relations can be reached at http://www.sonicbids.com/support/

So it is not surprising that the same market forces are coming to bear on indie music-if people want an avenue to the fast track (even if it is a chimera) there will be someone who will create a an on ramp for them, and take their money. Sad, but it was ever thus….