JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Success Stories Forum Song Of The Year Contest

Hi JPF friends.

I've been off writing for a while and had forgotten that I had entered the Song Of The Year contest last year. Imagine my suprise when I got an email from them 2 days ago informing me that my lyric "Scrapbook Of My Mind" got a semi final placement especially since it was only 4 lyrics in the final. Perhaps it will bring the muse back, who knows??

I know, a small achievment, but nevertheless a nice one. Below is a link to the result + the lyric:

http://songwriting.songoftheyear.com/janjohansen.htm


SCRAPBOOK OF MY MIND


A few shots of Kentucky

Help me to unwind

When pictures in pa’s album

Are running through my mind

Grandpa on the porch 1990s I think

Ma with my brother John

On a rocking horse,

Memories keep rolling, on and on and on



My loved ones flash before my eyes

As the night sky turns on memories

Every time a shooting star dies

I wish they were here with me

Grandpa and grandma are now gone

Their life and work fading with time

But through these snapshots they live on

In the scrapbook of my mind


Tears of laughter and sadness

Leak from my soul’s core

The finest mountain brew and I

Have done this road before

Folks say I’m hell bent on leaving this old world

But the comfort I’ve found

Sure is Heaven sent,

The nights I’m on my own, I’m not all alone



My loved ones flash before my eyes

As the night sky turns on memories

Every time a shooting star dies

I wish they were here with me

Grandpa and grandma are now gone

Their life and work fading with time

But through these snapshots they live on

In the scrapbook of my mind


When my twilight hour is near

And my Maker calls me home

I won’t stumble or have fears

I’ll take those final steps…… well prepared


My loved ones flash before my eyes

As the night sky turns on memories

Every time a shooting star dies

I wish they were here with me

Grandpa and grandma are now gone

Their life and work fading with time

But through these snapshots they live on

In the scrapbook of the mind



To the loved ones I leave behind


© 2011 Jan S Johansen

Hey Jan,

Congrats..... but I have a strange feeling this bunch of people are scam artists.

Didn't we see this site taken down last year due to mis-representation ?

I'm sorry Jan, but I seem to recall the whole thing is bogus, even down to the supposed "judges".

If someone could verify ?

cheers, sorry....

niteshift

Yep, I seem to recall it rings a bell....


Domain:
www.songoftheyear.com
IP Address:

72.167.232.155

IP Host:

p3nlh053.shr.prod.phx3.secureserver.net



Find IP Address Location for 'My IP' www.songoftheyear.com



Continent:

North America (NA)



Country:

United States (US)



State:

Arizona



City:

Scottsdale



Postal Code:

85260



Area Code:

480



Metro Code:

753



ISP:

GoDaddy.com



Organization:

GoDaddy.com



Time zone:

America/Phoenix

cheers, niteshift

Hi niteshift,

Thanks for the information, if what you say is true, I certainly won’t enter this contest again. I got honorable mentioning a while back in the UNISONG contest in LA 3 years running when somebody told me they were scam. I swore I wouldn’t bother to enter any songwriting contest again but when I saw the Song of the Year contest I thought I give it a try. Well life is life, I’m sure I’m a lot happier than the organizers of these contests are.

It be interesting to know from the more experienced members here what they think of the likes of UNISONG, Song of the Year and other songwriting contests.

Thanks again niteshift, your input is very much appreciated.
Jan

You're welcome Jan. I lot of these scams are very hard to spot, and they're getting much more clever too.

There's a good article here.. http://zirconmusic.com/tutorials/text/how-to-detect-and-avoid-music-scams/ written by JPF member Zircon ( Andrew Aversa ) which covers the various ruses. If you PM him for more specific information, he may be able to give you more detailed advice.

Better luck next time ! Just remember to keep you money in your own pocket.

cheers, niteshift

PS - another well written article on the same subject.... http://business.songstuff.com/article/music_business_scams/

Hey there Jan.....simply put, I DON'T TRUST ANY OF THEM!!!
How easy is it to stage a contest, charge a fee (per song entry), and then, of course, you lose??
I've entered two contests (can't tell you which ones..it's been a long time), but they promised, at the very least, a song critique. Not only did I not win...but, I never got my critique(s).
Nope! It's too easy to steal...and too hard to follow up with an investigation. Too easy to tell you that you lost, and too easy to keep all those entry fees.
It's a bunch of BS. If you have a song worth a darn, somehow it will make it's presence known.

But hey, you'll always hear from those (bs)guys that will tell ya that thier songs have won, and that their career's are now jump started because of them.!

Trust your gut....not the guy who's telling you that "you can have your song on the radio.....for a fee, of course".
-Tom

I never enter them any more. Easy way to make money by taking it from songwriters. Even those that "win", rarely do you ever hear about the song again. This world is full of scams and scamers of every description, makes so that you have to be wary of everybody. A bad way to be. Even all those lotteries, they may not be scams but they play on the weakness of people wanting to strike it rich. Most of those lotteries are run by governments, a voluntary way to tax people, mostly the poor.

Hi niteshift, Tom and Everett,

Thank you all for responding and for your links about the subject niteshift. It makes you wonder what these people are made of. After decades trouble shooting around the world in Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and other oil products, I’m quite elephant skinned, but I feel sorry for the kids who are more talented, more sensitive and more ambitious than I am. Somebody should knock these criminals on the head if they could be found.

Thanks again friends, I’ll stick to the lyric forums from now on, at least I know I get an honest critique there, though I don’t always agree with it.

All the best
Jan

On the other hand, Jan, perhaps it's not a scam.

http://www.scam-scams.org/

Donna

Donna, that's an interesting link. But when I go to URL scam-scams.org, shouldn't I get a home page with access to other scams that this website has investigated?

Why, when I go to the home page, does it immediately give me a rundown on how SOTY is a reputable organization? This seems to be the *only* scam investigation on the site.

If I had a contest that had a lot of threads on the Internet saying I was illegitimate, how much would it cost me to do up a "scam investigation" and buy a domain name to feature it?

Just saying -- it's an odd site. Odd name, odd content.

Z.Mulls, I seem to remember seeing a link at the bottom of that page where you could click to see reports on other sites that had been investigated. I didn't click because I was busy doing something else. I'll check it out shortly.

Donna

Let me piggyback on that comment. Because I don't think that SOTY is a "scam" in the real sense of the word. A "scam" is where someone takes your money under false pretenses and doesn't deliver what they promise. That's not the case here.

SOTY is a contest, where you pay money to enter, songs are evaluated based on some criteria, a winner (and runners-up) are chosen, and prizes are awarded. All of that happens -- from that perspective, it's on the up-and-up.

But I could start the Zmulls Song Contest tomorrow, with a $1000 prize for the top song. I could charge, say, $10 per entry, and if I got at least 100 entries, I won't lose money giving the prize away. As long as I spend a couple of minutes listening to each song, and conscientiously say "hmmm...this song is the best one" and send out the check, my contest is legitimate. Now, is my contest more or less legitimate than SOTY? Matter of opinion.

Anyone can run a song contest, the only question is what does it mean to win it? How does the industry view it (if at all)? What is the industry participation? The ISC and JLSC have major industry players as judges, for instance.

Full disclosure -- I have entered SOTY in the past, and have placed a couple of songs in Runner-Up and Finalist places, and use that information on my website. It's nice to have your song chosen, it's a shot in the arm and ego, and just being chosen above X other songs means *something*.

As long as you know what it is you are giving your money for, and what you can get from it, cool. I think the "scam" comments aren't to say SOTY is dishonest, I think they are to say, "think about what you're doing."

(I still thing that scam-scams.org site is hinky, though)

(The 'More Info' link at the bottom leads to more info about their research report into SOTY. Then you can go back to the home page to read the SOTY report again.)

Z.Mulls, you could be right about scam-scams.org being hinky.

Bottom line, though, is that - as you say - SOTY does deliver.
It's up to the individual to think about where he/she wants to drop the dollar.

The way I see it is that if I were a smoker - which I'm not - the price of submitting one song would be the equivalent of about 3-4 packets of cigarettes. Or a meal out with a good wine. What's the big deal?

On that note - and following on from reading the SOTY pages - I plan to submit a song or two.

Donna

Eeek! Donna, it's up to you, but the whole thing is a farce.

The web page is not real, neither are the judges. They're just photos taken off the internet with made up bios. There is also no physical street address and no way to contact anyone.

These guys got exposed on JPF a couple of years back, and quickly took down their website.

Looks like they're back......

Yes, http://www.scam-scams.org/ is THEIR OWN website, coming out of the same ISP.

Do a JPF search, and you should be able to find the relevant info.

cheers, niteshift

PS - I knew this guys sounded familiar .... here's the thread...
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/859684/page/1/fpart/1

Hi Donna, Z Mulls and niteshift,

Thanks for dropping by, for your links and for your insight. niteshift with your abilities you should do “trouble shooting” in the music biz. No honestly I don’t take songwriting or songwriting contests too seriously. There’s a lot more important things in life. As mentioned above, I just feel sorry for the kids that fall victims to such scumbags, especially since most kids have a limited budget. Writing is such a positive thing to do.

Keep on writing
Jan

Hi again friends,

Below is a copy of the email I received from SOTY on the 17th of february. Strange, a little reminder just a few days before the closing date 28th of February for the next contest.
.................................................................
Jan

This is Kelly with the Song of the Year songwriting contest. It appears that your results in the 2011 contest have not been checked yet (per the link available within the "Updates" section of our website). Therefore I am emailing you now to notify you since that section is in the process of being removed.

Even though your material did not place as a Winner or Finalist, you still did incredibly well in the contest. You had an entry that received the Semi-Finalist placement as listed on your personalized placement page at
http://songwriting.songoftheyear.com/janjohansen.htm

The 'Semi-Finalist' placement is the highest placement next only to the one winner and four finalists from each category.

Your personalized placement page has been created for you so that you can reference your songwriting accomplishment from your website, press kit, biography, promotional materials, etc... It will remain online for years to come.

Great job and congratulations on your songwriting placement!

Kelly

If I was running a song writing contest to maximize my profit, I would award a prize to the top song(s) and make everybody else a semi-finalist or at least give them an honorable mention and encourage them to come back next year because they came so close this year.

I confess to having entered the lyric contest run by American Songwriter magazine which is an actual printed magazine that arrives in the mailbox. My band mate won 4th place in their monthly contest and they published his lyric and a profile of him in their printed magazine which I thought was worthy.

I also think that the John Lennon and Eurovision contests might be above board, but the odds of winning are very long relative to the cost of entry.

Otherwise, I would run away.

Hi Colin,

You must have read my mind, that’s exactly what I thought any crook would do. Luckily you and other JPFers do your best to warn potential contestants about the scammers, but sadly there will always be somebody there for the taking.

Looking on the bright side, I’m sure honest hard working people have a greater chance to be winners in life than these good for nothing losers and trash organizers, and that’s what life is all about IMHO.

Justice works in mysterious ways
Jan

Don't believe this stuff. In the past decade I have won over $40,000.00 in cash, gear, services (Music website subscriptions) and an assortment of other stuff in Songwriting Contests. In addition to this is the great feeling of having your music appreciated by professional musicians, producers, publishers and music industry entities. Plus I have had several songs signed in direct relationship to my songwriting contest wins.

My definition of a songwriting contest that is a scam is one that does not pay out the prizes on time or has fraudulent information on the website. Song Of The Year and the now defunct Unisong contest do not fit that category. They have always done everything they said they would do when I won. I have won a lot of them so I know first hand. My wall is plastered with plaques from Unisong, Billboard Songwriting Contest, Song Of The Year, Great American Songwriting Contest and many more. They are my daily inspiration and a source of immense pride about my music.

Don't ever let anyone steal your joy in the accomplishments you have with your music. Thousands of people enter these contests and only a few make it to semi-finalist status. You should be proud of yourself. Keep writing and next time you may win the whole thing. But it is kind of like the lottery. You can't win it if you aren't in it. Ignore the "kill joys". You are a winner. Conceive it, believe it and achieve it.

Much Respect,
http://www.stonemanavenue.com

Thanks for your post. I was considering whether to enter some
contests this year. It is good to have the opinion of someone
who has taken the leap!!!!

For what it's worth: Several weeks ago I contacted one of the SOTY 2011 category winners (he's on another site of which I'm a member). I asked if he'd share with me what his experience of the contest had been.

His response: "...there is truth in both sides of that debate [my note: whether contests are scams]. There are song contests that are rip-offs and there are others that are not. For me personally I can tell you that John Lennon, International song Contest, Great american Contest, UK song Contest, USA Song Contest, Durango Write With a Hit Maker, Song of The Year Contest, Song door, Indie International, NSAI/CMT, Australian International Song Competition are all contests that I have either won and/or placed highly in. They all delivered the prizes that they promised."

He also mentioned that he enters contests not with an explicit desire to win but to gain some idea of how his songs might compete at a commercial level. He finds that experience useful. He said that the several songs that he's had cut or placed in film/tv have always been ones that did well in the contests. He also mentioned that entering those contests and placing high brought his work to the attention of folks in the industry.

Further to all this, however, as he wasn't an overall winner of SOTY 2011, he wasn't eligible for the $30,000 grand prize. To find out whether that prize was paid out, I'd need to contact the winner. I'll leave that to someone else, however.

Donna

Folks,

I know the folks who run many of the contests mentioned some are okay, some are fairly useless, some are defunct and some are harmless. The exception is SOTY. After all these years, those of you who have been around should know I know this stuff inside and out. My opinion is please don't waste your money on SOTY.

Brian

PS to Stoneman: Have you ever had any commercial success outside of contests? Any Billboard hits? Any significant radio airplay? Any film or TV placements? Any songs recorded by other artists? With all your contest wins, I think it would wonderfully put things into perspective if you could list some if you have any examples. Among the JPF Music Awards nominees and winners are hits, hit writers and artists, major commercial award winners and a host of full time working musicians and writers. Have you ever entered the JPF Music Awards? They are the largest in the world. If you want to measure your music against your real peers, that would be a good indicator.

Brian

Mr. Whitney,

I have been in the music industry for over 50 years. I have had varying degrees of success as I have played in 30+ bands, 12 genres and have toured all over the world. But at my age I certainly don't have anything at all to prove to you sir. Success in music is relative to the artist. One artists success would be anther's failure. Success is individually perceived. Just because us little songwriting contest winners have not won your elitist J.P.F. contest, it does not make us lesser than you in any way. Personally, I was not even aware that JPF had a contest. I have been a member for many years and have never received any advertisement for it. So, competing against you great songwriters has never even been a blip on my map.

But, it seems that maybe you misunderstood my post. I am not trying to say that I am the greatest songwriter in the world. I will leave that kind of hype to you great people. All I am saying is that I have won money and services worth money by competing and winning in contests. The fact that I have won so many could be just plain luck or a certain appreciation that a few people in this world have for my work. In any contest its is always about someones opinion. I definitely would not compete in the JPF contest now as their opinion is probably tainted because I dared to disagree with your illustrious opinion. Whatever!!!!

Man, I don't even know why I am waisting my time debating you on this issue. Your insulting way of challenging me to some stupid songwriting dual is preposterous and unworthy of an old mans time. Well, at least this old mans time.

But I will say this. I have made over hundred times in winnings proceeds compared to the amount of money I have invested in songwriting contest. Yes, I have had music in film and TV. Yes, I have had radio play of my solo music as well as music I played in a few bands. No, I have never been on the Billboard charts. I never claimed to be some Grammy winning artist. My only claim is that I have won contests and gained revenue from it. But I have nothing to prove to you or the JPF. The hundreds of thousands of downloads of my music is proof enough for me that I am a decent songwriter/musician. Anyone (including you) who has no respect for that is definitely entitled to their opinion.

It just seems to me that the Just Plain Folks seem to be more interested in portraying themselves as being better than all the other musicians out there. At least that seems to be the vibe that I get from you. Also, why have a success stories link if when someone posts what THEY consider to be a success, you folks come along a poke wholes in it, degrade it and publicly declare it not to be a success at all.

As a mentor, teacher and dedicated musical artist, I am in the business of building people up. Not tearing them down.

You Don't Have To Respect Me Or My Accomplishments!

I Could Care Less! Your's is just another opinion blowing in the wind......

Hey Stoneman,

Yeah, we're all in that business too. I'm not going to debate the merits of song contests per se, or any other issue, but SOTY has proven time and time again to be an outright scam.

If you can provide..

1. The principles of the "company" , their full names and their postions
2. A pyhsical address of the organistion
3. A reference from a judge ( the judges postions are not real, in either name or position and the photograhs have been stolen from the internet )
4. A verifiable ISP ( other than an anonymous server in Texas with no contact details ) which has been purposly hidden in respect to it's administration
5. A reference from a legitimate industry organisation
6. A reference from a grand prize winner

.... then I might be persuaded to change my opinion.

Scams such has these have been well researched over the years, in order to share that information with the JPF membership. The whole deal is about mentorship, and that mentorship should be as accurate as it can be.

Up until this date, I repeat, SOTY is a scam, full stop.

cheers, niteshift

Hi Niteshift,

Well at least you didn't come at me with some demeaning condescending elitist hogwash like Mr. Whitney did. I can respect that.

However, once again there seems to be a disconnect in regards the purpose of my post here. It is not to convince you or anyone else that I am right and you all are wrong. It is simply to display my own personal experience with SOTY which has been positive for many years. All I am saying is that they have always done what they said they would do in regards to my entries and wins. Does that mean you are all wrong. No! It just means that because of my experience with them I don't believe you. Am I going to spend my valuable time researching and finding all this stuff that fits your criteria for changing your opinion? Absolutely not! That is because I really don't care about what you believe to be fact. JPF continues to display an inert need to cement what you say to be fact as the holy grail of truth. But for me, it's your opinion and though you have a right to it, It doesn't mean that I am going to bow down to the JPF proclamation. Instead I assert that I have a right to disagree.

I am reminded of my childhood when a bunch of friends would claim that one of my friends was this terrible person. They would give me all this evidence and witnesses and what not. But if that person had always been cool with me, I was not persuaded to end his friendship. Also, I didn't expect them to change their perceptions of him. For me, personal experience always trumps logic, evidence and all that other stuff. This is not to say that providing all of the evidence you listed is not a compelling argument. Just to say that making you believe is not important enough for me to spend my time trying to find this evidence. I hope this brings clarity to my position on this.

Finally, I joined JPF many years ago and have only occasionally come through. I think this is due to the negativity that seems to be pervasive in this cyber atmosphere. After this latest experience none of you ever have to worry about me coming back with some daring affront to your cemented beliefs. This will be my last post okay? The inferior songwriter has left the building so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. I wish you all continued success in your musical aspirations.

Respect,
Stoneman

Fare thee well Stoneman.
Your childhood story and your experience with said song contest reminds me of when I was younger (A lot younger :), I knew this gal and we got along well, though we never dated or anything. Somebody said I always heard she was kind of a bitch. Well, I said, she may be, at least she has that name but we always got along fine so "I" can't say anything against her.
So---the contest thing may be like beauty--in the eye of the beholder
Peace to all

Hey Stoneman,

Instead of writing a load of dribble, you could better spend your time looking at the facts.

There is no "authority" here, just well researched and accountable opinion.

You have not made your case, and I am suspecting that you may have some involvement with the worms that run that bogus sham.

Happy travels.

cheers, niteshift

Colin, looks like this contest's management already invented that "wheel"-
nobody knows how much folks who entered contest got "letters"
of a happiness" - ie "...you almost won and we invite you to enter next year...cuz you're a semi-finalist, your song(s) is(are) great"
Such a message maybe is sent to each entrant after winners are declared and nobody can check out if this is true.
Here in Ukraine such a business is called "breeding of the rabbits"

Alek nailed it.

Stoneman,

The reason we expose scams is so other people do not waste their money on them. For many years, SOTY has been among the worst scams in the business. In our awards, which by the way are 100% FREE to enter, we used over 10,000 judges working for 17 months through 6 rounds of voting. The process was transparent. The awards were given at a public event with nearly 1000 people present and with another 12-15,000 people watching live on line. The winners and nominees were are mix of famous artists and complete unknowns who never played a live gig in their lives. But they were all real people, their names were not hidden and all of them could easily be contacted to verify any and all of what we do. In addition, the judging system itself was open to the public, including music fans, songwriter and artist peers and music industry professionals. In the last awards we ran, we had 42K albums and 560,000 songs entered in over 100 genres. We gave out nominations for the top 20 (give or take) songs and top 10 albums in each genre and then we listed on the website the top 4 finalist albums and top 6 finalist songs including the winners of each category. We also had another 30 winners for things like song, album, artist, band, etc. of the year winners. We handed out awards, again in public face to face with any winners present and mailed awards to all those who were not. Many people on this message board participated as entrants, some as nominees and winners and many more as judges. The bottom line, we did everyone out in the open, 100% transparently for all to see and scrutinize.

The SOTY people are the opposite. But you go on and send them money. In fact, I hope you waste every dime you have on meaningless scams. Just don't come to our site and try to sucker more innocent victims into their web. We don't tolerate it.

Good luck, you need it!

Brian

I gave up on song contests a long time ago.