Founder Panos Panay Exits Sonicbids
(UPDATED) Thirteen years after founding Sonicbids, Panos Panay is exiting the music gig and marketing platform. The Billboard Group acquired Sonicbids in January of this year for an estimated $15 million, and Panay stayed on to help with the transition and will continue to act as an adviser to the company.
What's Next For Panos Panay?
"I’ve always subscribed to the adage that timely exits are more important than impressive entrances" wrote Panay on his departure." And while not revealing his plans, Panay is clearly already on to his next venture which he says he will announce early next week.
Sonicbids, which launched as a musician's electronic press kit and later added performance and other opportunities, was among the first companies to prove the potential of online technology to serve an emerging middle class of musicians.
Panay, who had been a music booking agent, started Sonicbids out of his Newton, MA apartment in September of 2000. It grew to serve 550,000 bands connecting them with 35,000 promoters who booked, according to company stats, nearly 1 million gigs.
It seems to me, that Pano Panay was an opportunist who’s primary mission was to build a site he could cash out on. Though Sonicbids provided marginally useful functionality for promoters, it was a disaster for the people who paid the bills – the artists. And now the site is crashing with the redesign. What a waste! Even the gig calendar doesn’t work.