There was a time in the music industry when the single greatest piece of advice given was, "Do not ever pay to submit your music to someone." This was mostly due to a proliferation of the sub-species called "song sharks." Song sharks were (are) normally people who ran demo studios who, for a hefty fee, would critique your lyrics or song and then give you feedback to help your career. The trick? No matter how crappy the lyric or how ripped off the melody, you would get a nice form letter in the mail saying something to the effect of, "Thank you for your wonderful piece of music. You clearly have talent and we think 'fill in the blank name of song' has a great chance to succeed! We would like to cut a demo of it and shop it to big-time Nashville labels and publishers. Please send $99, sign this short form and we will make millions together." Of course, it's a scam. Always has been, always will be.

Sonicbids has been asking for money from musicians to submit their tunes to "opportunities" - and getting lots of it. Founded by Panos Panay in 2001, Sonicbids now exceeds $8 million in revenue per year with 19,000+ promoters and over 200,000 artist profiles. For around $6 per month or $50-100 per year, artists get their own electronic press kit (EPK) and e-mail blasts of opportunities. However, those "opportunities" cost an extra $5-25 per submission. This is where it gets controversial. After all, you are used to paying the post office to mail your promo packs to clubs and you most likely do not have an elegantly designed, easily navigable EPK on your site; Sonicbids is wonderful for this and the monthly fee is very fair for storage and visibility. You can quickly send someone to your EPK with photos, MP3s, press clips - all without your drummer having to print anything and the club owner can't say it got lost in the mail. The question is this: is it a scam to pay Sonicbids for submissions to events like SXSW or for inclusion on the next Guitar Hero (both of which are exclusively through Sonicbids)?

Full disclosure: I have worked with Panos and others on the Sonicbids team as a business and as an artist and find them all to be very professional and truly dedicated to helping musicians achieve success. It should be noted that I will be working again with them shortly. The short answer to the scam question is... kinda. It really depends on what you are submitting for. I have seen countless examples of "festivals" that ask for $25 submissions and I know for a fact that a) those bands have already been booked from last year and b) sometimes the festival has been cancelled for a year, but the listing has not. There have been some wonderful stories of small clubs helping bands as they tour because the artists were able to reach countless promoters or bookers with their EPK - this would not have happened with traditional mailings. I have also seen international performance submissions go horribly wrong. Tales of cancelled shows, overblown promotion claims, downright theft of instruments and so on. Sonicbids does an excellent job of vetting its promoters (I should know, I went though it) and for the most part, catches anyone trying to make a quick buck by enacting a long turnaround policy. If you are a promoter on Sonicbids, you must be running a business for the long haul. The company also does a very good job of making things right when they have gone wrong by refunding submission fess and covering some costs.

From a promoter's perspective, it is downright difficult to listen to hundreds of songs a day as you choose who will get the gig. The money that is charged for submissions can ensure that bands get paid a decent amount and it also offsets staff cost and lost business (as well as strong Tylenol for the bad bands - and there are many!). Be realistic. Understand that tens of thousands of artists may be vying for the same opportunity you are and if your music isn't an exact fit or if your EPK isn't complete - save your money.

As with anything, buyer beware! Sonicbids is a wonderful tool for any artist to have a slick looking EPK and connect with artists and bookers around the country, as well as receive great insight into industry opportunities by signing up for e-mail alerts. Set a budget for submitting, maybe $20 a month, and try it out for a few months. Check out the promoters before you submit and try to find out who played a certain event through Sonicbids and contact them for their experiences. Good luck.

Michael St. James is a songwriter, performer producer, music publisher and music industry speaker and consultant. He's the author of the forthcoming 'The New Music Business Model 2.0' and creative director of Stjamesmedia, LLC.