D.I.Y.

10 Resources That Help Musicans Book Gigs Online

Dm_080603_surfing_the_www This is by no means an authoritative list of online booking tools. In fact, it may be missing a few players in the field. Duncan Freeman, the founder of Band Metrics and Indie Music Tech, published this list over the weekend. It’s a great overview of the many sites available though. I’m left to assume that there’s a demand for these tools and that some artists are finding them useful. Otherwise, a new tool wouldn’t be created every other day.

10 Resources That May Help Artists Book More Gigs:

    1. GigMasters (booking platform for artists and talent buyers)
    2. GigMaven (free and easy-to-use booking website for musicians; currently available in NY, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Austin, Phoenix and Ohio)
    3. Gigwish (influence venues, promoters and booking agents by enabling an artist's fans and their local music scene to vote for them)
    4. G2.fm (an online booking community where bands and musicians connect with venues by sharing their music)
    5. Live Music Machine (get booked anywhere for any type of live music event, as well as getting booked directly from MySpace)
    6. MusiGigs (a private beta service that helps artists get booked by connecting venues directly to bands)
    7. OnlineGigs (booking and promotional tool, and one of the largest detailed venue databases)
    8. ReverbNation's Gig Finder (search over 100,000 venues and clubs, and locate those that have booked similar Artists)
    9. Sonicbids (the largest and most successful online booking service for musicians, bands, managers, promoters, etc., as well as corporations and organizations looking to book artists)
    10. SplitGigs (a new social web-app that helps emerging artists find other artists to exchange and share gigs with)

      Artists may also find sites like Eventful, Meetup, Bandsintown and Songkick helpful for locating venues and artists to perform with.

      Do these tools work?  What problems do they create?  And, for all you shameless self-pluggers, which tools are missing from Freeman's list?

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      9 Comments

      1. Tess here, I’m the Community Manager for Sonicbids. Saw some comments and just wanted to post a note here and say that I’m definitely willing to talk to anyone about concerns they have about Sonicbids. We’re currently rolling out No Cost Gig Listings on Sonicbids, which means that artists can submit to promoter opportunities with no submission fee – we currently about 150 No Cost opportunities live on the site right now. Last year alone, 71,000 gigs were booked on Sonicbids. Just a few facts there. More than happy to provide any more details! My email is tess (at) sonicbids (dot) com

      2. I would add that connecting directly with your own fanbase to creatively put together gigs in non-traditional venues would bypass most of the above.
        The beauty about stepping outside the normal music business model is you don’t have to compete with all the others trying to get booked at the same venues.
        It has kept me on the road for a while!
        Andy

      3. Thank you for including GigMasters.com in your list!
        We work hard to help our members book gigs & the beauty of our service is that you control your own destiny. The leads are always coming in so the more work you put into your press kit and the more you bid – the more bookings you can expect.
        Please feel free to contact us with ANY questions:
        info (at) gigmasters (dot) com

      4. Yeah, I am starting to think SONIC BIDS sucks too.
        Been on sonicbids for a couple of months still no gigs and the ones you pay for are the worse as its guaranteed they will decline you and take ur money. Its wrong, if they reject someone paying then they need to give a legit reason why or give funds back. I had one do that and he gave the excuse that there were no other SPOTS! (Stop taking bids *people’s hard working money* or Take ur crap down so no one bids if you know there are no spots in the first place)Duh!
        I am not happy with sonicbids and probably will only try it for another month and if still no gigs then I am going to stop investing in the useless tools there. Glad you list other website options so I can start using them instead.
        I think gigmaster ask for too much money upfront though. Its like investing in stock, no guarantee ur gonna make anything which sucks.

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