Sonicbids is passionate about making a difference. They have set out to fundamentally change the music business and the way that it works.

Sonicbids interviewed Brad First, Festival Coordinator for SXSW, about specifically where an artist’s career should be in order to be seriously considered to perform at SXSW, how much time is spent on every submission and what they look at in your EPK and more.

Guitar Player's editor in chief, Mike Molenda, told me the magazine solicited show-me-what-you've-got tracks through Sonicbids.com, a community site for musicians and industry professionals.

MTV is now tapping Sonicbids on a voter registration fall tour, according to details shared with Digital Music News on Wednesday.

Many of the world’s biggest masterpieces would have never seen the light of day had it not been for some rich individual who funded its creation.

"The curators of music today are very different from who they were just 10 years ago," Panay says. "People are discovering music in all different ways."

Today, Sonicbids employs 53 people and has reshaped the way many bands and promoters connect. The firm now does all of the submissions for big music festivals like CMJ, South by Southwest and Lollapalooza. More than 160,000 bands and 14,000 promoters use the site, which has facilitated more than 60,000 deals.

Sonicbids is that rare Music 2.0 business that is not only more than 5 years old, but one that people are actually willing to pay for. At a time when everyone expects free, 150,000 musicians pay $5.95 a month or $50 to $100 a year to create an electronic press kit (EPK) on Sonicbids and use it to get gigs on their own or via the site's expansive list of opportunities.

One example is Sonicbids, a sort of musical matchmaking agency that puts together event promoters who need musicians and musicians who need work. It is a simple concept but no one else had thought of it and the founder, Panos Panay, has built a business now worth about $8 million.

I narrowed your pool of questions down to the seven that kept coming up again and again and submitted them to Lou Paniccia, Sonicbids Artist Relations Manager (who, it should be said, saw a post I had written about Sonicbids and kindly volunteered to take whatever you wanted to throw). Here, they are - your questions and Lou's answers.

Not long ago, I sat down with 35-year-old Panos Panay, founder and CEO of Sonicbids. Launched in 2001, Sonicbids had revenue of $248,000 in 2003, $3 million in 2005 and $8 million in 2007.

Launched in 2001, Sonicbids had revenue of $248,000 in 2003, $3 million in 2005 and $8 million in 2007. With growth like that, I thought he [founder Panos Panay] must have a special understanding of what it takes to create and run a business in today's ever more competitive environment. He does.

Sonicbids more than tripled its membership base, while increasing revenue 350% and profits 700% in 2004.