I've been away from performing for four years. So now I'm building a fan base again. OurStage is just one avenue to use. If one is looking for the voting there to confirm whether they write good songs or not, I would suggest performing them live where they stand on there own and see the reaction.
With these contests there are so many apples to oranges comparisons that occur. For example, I do novelty songs. Is there a novelty category? No. So I must compete in categories where I'm at a disadvantage because of genre conflict. However - say for example I put a song into competition in the Pop category. Since that is one of the more high traffic categories, I reap the benefit of reaching more people with my music. And one thing I've learned about the music I write - whether people like it or not, they do remember the songs - and that's the power of a good hook. Do I need to win to benefit? No. If I acquire fans, I win. If I acquire enough fans, I win big. Look at it as a business. This business is not for the hypersensitive. I like what OurStage has done in avoiding a lot of the abuses I've seen at other sites. Yes there's a lot of material that's low quality. And some of it floats(you know the saying). But that's life. Some Top 40 songs are low quality. One can win with crap. But could one take pride in it, if they did - and knew better?