ArtistData Closing Down

Howdy –

Hope all is well with you.

You might have gotten the heads up by now, but in case you have not, I’m sending this missive to tell you about a change that affects your web site and internet marketing machine.

Yesterday (Sept 19) SonicBids announced that they will discontinue the ArtistData web site, and the service provided by that site, on October 14 (less than a month away). All data will “poof* disappear, including EPK, blog posts, past show data, tour logs, yadda yadda.

SonicBids is magnanimously offering for folks (musicians) to convert to SonicBids for free. They will allow you to maintain a calendar and an EPK for free, but any added service comes with a ‘Pro Upgrade’ for ~#12/month.

After investigating, it is my impression that services such as geo-targeted press releases, timed posting to social media, and the ability to embed their calendar on your web site (or anywhere else) will disappear entirely. I do not see any evidence that they will even be part of the SonicBids ‘Pro’ package (I have a message into their support folks[1]). Since those are the services I find most valuable, I am inclined to dismiss SonicBids for my own purposes if they are not available. I have other reasons, too – but that is a different discussion. Your mileage may vary.

That said, I am familiar with the SonicBids heirarchy enough to be able to help you migrate if you wish to do so. We should get started with that process as soon as possible in order to have ‘ducks in a row’ by October 14. Just let me know and we can get started.

Conversely, I can help you to develop an alternative for your own web site, and integrate it with your social media stuff as much as possible. I will be happy to do so if that is what you want to do. I have identified a couple of excellent calendar programs that will work perfectly. We should start on that soon as well, so let me know at your earliest convenience so that I can get moving on it before ArtistData goes away.

keep rockin’

– Matt
matt.lindi@gmail.com
704.326.2018

[1] I heard from the support folks at SonicBids Here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth:
(04:28:45 PM) Matt Lindi: I am interested in migrating from ArtistData. However, I am not finding some tools that I employ regularly – press releases, embedded calendar, etc. Will those be available with a SonicBids account?
(04:28:51 PM) *** Jaclyn joined the chat ***
(04:29:01 PM) Jaclyn: Hi there, happy to help.
(04:29:19 PM) Jaclyn: The press release and embedded calendar will not be available.
(04:29:34 PM) Matt Lindi: ok. that’s all I need to know. thanks
(04:29:44 PM) Jaclyn: You are welcome.
(04:30:06 PM) Jaclyn: We have can add you to the list of customers requesting that their calendar data get imported to Sonicbids.