[L1k Membertalk] Re: Paying To Submit

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Dear Union Sisters & Brothers...

I have been reading the comments on the list for several days... holding my 
tongue as I waited to see what ideas and thoughts emerged. With 12 years 
experience making a living as a full time touring musician, I would like to 
offer yet another perspective on this dialogue which has been spirited. 
Let me start with this: No one owes us anything. We don't deserve something for 
free. And there is no such thing as fair. 
Let me then add something useful one of our Union Brothers, Peter Alsop, taught 
me many years ago! You never get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. 
It's that simple. I will come back to this idea.
To be clear, I am not specifically endorsing or deriding Sonic Bids over other 
services such as Reverb Nation etc.. That said, if you don't like the service 
that Sonic Bids provides... don't use it. If you think applying to a particular 
festival is not worth the fee, don't apply. No one is holding a gun to your 
head and forcing you to be an artist or musician. And no one is requiring you 
to apply to a specific festival. Sonic Bids runs a service that I have found to 
be a necessary part of business from time to time. It has allowed presenters to 
easily access information about me when they wanted to have an EPK. As a result 
I was able to secure gigs. I have used it as a convenience to apply to some 
events (Folk Alliance, etc.). I have not used Sonic Bids in a while... and I 
have let my subscription slide, as I did not need it. But I am sure somewhere 
down the road I will need it again, and I will re-up. Fair and unfair don't 
enter into it. It is not a deep philosophical discussion, and Sonic Bids is not 
the enemy. It is business. And Sonic Bids is clear, precise, and efficient in 
providing a service I occasionally need, and doing so at a competitive price.
Back in the days when we all had to walk up hill in the snow both ways to get 
to school and back.... We used to send out a Press Kit when we wanted a gig. 
For an indie artist with control over their own materials it might look like 
this.$2.50 = CD$  .75 = Large Padded Mailer$  .50 = Glossy Printed Materials$ 
1.00 = Nice Photography$  .40 = Black Folder$  .25 = Sticker/Post card on the 
front of the folder so it was eye catching$  .25 = Sticker/Post card on the 
outside of the envelope so it was attractive and eye catching as well$ 3.00 = 
Postage (now more like 4.95 if you use the flat rate Priority 
mailer)__________________________________________________$8.65 = Total cost for 
sending out a full Press Kit. 
Now most venues didn't charge to apply for gigs. But how many gigs did you used 
to get from a cold-kit mailing? Really? Most of the gigs came from calling a 
booker, getting permission to send a kit, sending the kit, following up with 
said booker via e-mail and/or the telephone. Then waiting a respectful amount 
of time and following up again. And eventually booking a gig, or not. 
Now many festivals and contests have ALWAYS charged application fees. SO add 
$10.00 to $30.00 to the cost of entering a specific juried contest or festival.
Now we're looking at between $18 & $40 bucks to apply to some events when all 
the costs are included. 
Maybe you were industrious and did a run of 1000 units on all your PR - and had 
a "booking" specific demo cut and pressed back in those days, so your per-unit 
out-lay for PR materials was less... But still you paid in advance for Press 
Kit materials and with design and printing of photos and flyers/brochures so 
you were into it for $3,000.00 dollars!!! in order to have the materials for 3K 
Press/Booking kits. But then... you changed your hair and your photography and 
your sound... and you only ever used 600 of the print units and booking 
specific CD's which you paid to move and store 4 times in the last 10 years, 
because you didn't want to waste the investment you had made in those PR 
materials. At the end of the day, your PR run cost you 40% more than expected, 
because of all the WASTED materials that collected dust and eventually were 
recycled and/or thrown out.
You get what I am saying here? Do you remember how much money we used to blow 
in PR materials?
And what was the environmental impact of all that waste? How often did a booker 
drop it in the round file and/or the recycling when it was all over. How many 
times did a booker/venue/Folk Organization get creative and collect all the 
demos and sell them for $2.00 a piece at shows in a grab-bin? And thus they 
were profiting off of your demo... but keeping it out of a land-fill?
Sonic Bids... Well, frankly they save me money. I have a decent looking Press 
Kit on-line when I need it. I don't spend money on materials that nobody really 
needs to see twice and/or hear twice. I keep them out of the land-fill, and I 
make bookers happy by not inundating them with crap they don't want anyway. 
But at the end of the day... Our work... Our bookings... Our livelihood comes 
from the relationships we build and the communities in which we invest. Most of 
the gigs I play every year, and have played for more than a decade on the road 
now... NEVER book from Sonic Bids or any other such service. They come to 
conferences, festivals, house concerts, picket lines, rallies, small coffee 
houses, jams (Local 1000 showcase free zones!), Song Circles (Falcon Ridge, 
Kerrville, Rocky Mountain, Old Town School, Swallow Hill etc.), camps, 
churches, schools, synagogues, etc. The people who book the best gigs I play 
every year rarely if ever book someone they have not seen live in some context.
And so... if you are expecting Sonic Bids, Reverb Nation, or whatever/etc. to 
be how you build a career... you're going to be disappointed. You still have to 
build a career the old fashioned way. You have to show up and meet people, 
network, build real relationships with real people, and expand your network 
every year while maintaining the relationships you have already established.
Paying a submission fee is not a pay-to-play scenario. It is not the gig 
equivalent of payola. It is a business transaction.  And one I use from time to 
time. It saves on the physical cost of materials and postage, and charges you 
in other ways. But good old fashioned networking is still gonna build a more 
sustainable career, and do it quicker.
And once you have established the relationship... then you begin talking about 
dates and money. And here Mr. Alsop's advice comes back in. You get what you 
negotiate, not what you deserve. SO negotiate. Ask them to sign a union 
contract. Get another % point or two out of the employer in pension. Maybe get 
50 bucks more toward travel. Or negotiate a meal, or lodging? Something. It's 
your job to haggle a little. Haggle politely and respectfully, and know when to 
quit. But negotiate! It's your job to advocate for your well-being and your 
needs. And it's also your job to know when a gig isn't worth it... and say no. 
It's your job to recognize that a day holed up in a motel room on the road 
working on Booking and PR will yield more income down the road than wasting 
that same day traveling out of your way to play a tips gig or a $50 bar gig. In 
short, it is your job to run a business, and assess what risks you are willing 
to make, what tools you need to do the job, and how to allocate your resources 
to get the most mileage out of your expenditures and investments. If you can't 
do that, or are unwilling to learn, you're not going to make it. And it's not 
Sonic Bid's fault.
And at the end of the day, after all that... if your art/music is not 
compelling... you will have a hard time making it fly. But I have seen really 
average musicians who have a GREAT attitude and an industrious spirit make a 
FINE living at this. But they don't rely on Sonic Bids to do it. They walk up 
hill, both ways in the snow, and they show up.
My $8.65 on the matter.
In Solidarity and Song...
:-)
-Joe Jencks





                                          
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