JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Song Contests Question

What's a good, legit song contest? It seems like all of the ones I'm finding charge an entry fee and I'm leary on sending out money. Are there free ones out there?
I've never participated in any contests, aside from Roy Cooper's recent Xmas demo gift. It's something I'd like to try out though.
Thank you for the help

Coal: We had quite a discussion on a previous thread re song contests. Marc Barnette & I had a few exchanges, 'cause he implied some contests were rip-offs. I disagreed, turns out he was correct. "Song Of the Year" is a scam (I actually won an honorable mention there -- arrghhhh -- I suspect if you write them a check, you'll be "honorably mentioned".
On the legit side, I like the Billboard Contest (not least 'cause I once got and award from them), but especially the Great American Song Contest (I got honorable mention three years in a row, which tells me they have great taste). Check out the judges on GASC. They include John Braheny, who I spent an hour with at the 2008 TAXI convention. Very legit.
From my personal point of view, the entry fees were worth it. I got an ego boost, and I use the "awards" when I pitch a song.
Hope this helps.
Ott

Check out your music organisations... NASI and the like... CMA, and so on... you expect a small fee, but the thing you are after is the feed back...

I have looked into them in the past and I believe that the vast majority of them are money making schemes that operate like insurance companies - bring in as much money as possible and only pay out the minimum you can get away with.

I would not enter an anonymous nationwide contest for the above reason, but if you can find something local operated by your NSAI chapter or a local radio station or fundraising organization, you might do it for fun.

I doubt if songwriting contests benefit your songwriting career other than to inspire you to write a song.

Tread carefully... most are 100% scams. I'd list the worst here but I am not up for another round of legal threats. I know how almost every single one of them is run behind the scenes and like politics and sausage, it's ugly and would piss you off or make you sick most of the time.

If they are free, I say go for it, who cares right? Just be sure you aren't giving away any rights to anything (if there's any sort of "agreement" beware.. you might be giving them permission to use your music however they like forever going forward, often to "promote" their contest, but it's just not worth it.

Please be cautious. I don't know when we'll relaunch the JPF awards which are free, but in the meantime, I doubt you'll get better feedback than you'll get here for free and on a few other free boards like Musesmuse or TAXI. I'd save your money and buy a TAXI membership instead.

Brian

All in all, if it's not industry sponsored ( eg NSAI, ASCAP, BMI ) or not for a specific promo, eg "write the new tune for brand X , or to promote an industry brand or website, then you're most likely wasting your time. Especailly if the "entry fee" is around the $30 mark or more.

The "write me this" ones seem OK, as long as they're free to enter, and the terms aren't tragic. Good practice too.

I'm going to enter the Jony Rockstar one, pointed out by Ian ( RINGITT ) with this entry

Still not finished yet, but I like the idea of a contest with set parameters. There are a few of them around, remixes especially, and the prizes are something that you can actually use.

If you don't win, then hopefully it's been a learning execise in production and how to follow instructions.

Just beware of those asking for money. Some are legit, but many aren't.

cheers, niteshift

thx everyone1. i THINK i'LL PUT THE $30 they all seem to ask for toward equip, instead

Dan, I agree with Niteshift. I think it's better to join contests that have a specific objective and outcome. The large-scale ones like ISC and JLSC are really lotteries--I would guesstimate the odds of winning are like 1 in 20,000 song entries. But if you wanna play the lottery, you have to buy a ticket.

The real bread and butter is in getting song placements and generating licensing royalties. The game is to get your songs on radio, in TV shows, movies, video games, adverts, ringtones, etc.

For example, imagine you were K'naan and you just found out that Coca-Cola has chosen your song Wavin' Flag as their official song for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup--Jackpot baby! :-) The song gets played on TV adverts and radio EVERYDAY FOR A MONTH, in at least 70 countries, with at least 400-700 million TV viewers alone exposed to your song. I would love to see K'naan's PRO check just for this one song--just the TV performance royalties alone would have to be insane!

Song contests could potentially lead to song placements, so I wouldn't discount them completely. If you have the means to send in a few songs, then do it, because you never know--but don't get your hopes up. Budget willing, I think songwriters have to use every available channel--including song contests--to get our music heard by people who could potentially help us place our songs.

Good luck with this, Dan! Most of us here, we're all in the same boat learning, developing our craft, and working to get song placements. It's getting "in" that is the hardest part.

all song contests exist to make money for the businesses or organizations that created them and run them.

some are more legit than others

some are scams to get money from ignorant beginner songwriters and trick them into spending money in the biz.

some are scams to get signed artists to play for free.
(televised music awards)