SONG CONTEST BLOG

It’s done!

All three categories, that is.  Congrats to the following in the Songwriter category:

Winner
R. Mack Harrell for “American Wheels”

Finalist
Karl Williams (aka Karl Thaler) for “Put Her There”

Runner Up
Cardin Campbell for “Emergency”

Results for the Singer/Songwriter category and Lyric-Only category have already been published.

Thanks fo taking part!

With considerable technical trouble, we finally notified the entrants of the Singer/Songwriter category.  Thank you everyone for your participation and, again, so sorry for this very delayed result.  Here we go…

Winner
Nafsica for “Missing Piece”

Finalist
Casey Black for “The Sarge”

Runner Up
Joelle Maddyson for “City Lights”

Results for the Lyric category have already been published, here.

Songwriter category next… bear with me!

I know we’re really really really delayed on notifications for the Free International Songwriting Competition.  I’m sorry.  And I appreciate your continued patience.

I am, however, delighted to announce that we’re done with the Lyric Category!

So…

Winner
Gabriel Gregoire for “The Angel Played Rock & Roll”

Finalist
Brent Lillie for “The Deal”

Runner Up
Diane Bowlin for “Black Diamond Eyes”

Very well done you three!

More to come…

The Singer/Songwriter Awards takes place six times a year.  When we first launched in 2005, we (uh, I…) decided to number each contest, 1 through 6, for each year.  

Stupidly, we named each of the six contests as a “Round” (e.g. The 2005 Singer/Songwriter Awards Round 1).

This created some confusion for you guys because you associated “Rounds” with multiple segments of a single event (like in boxing), right?

To clarify, each contest “Round” is an independent and complete contest.  As such, if you enter Round 1 and win, then you win.  That’s it.  You do not need to enter any further Rounds… but you are more than welcome to.

Make sense?

You might be asking yourself, “If it’s so confusing, why don’t they name the contests differently?”

Ahh… good question!

Our entire backend system (the database we use to store, display and reconcile your contest submissions), is configured to ‘understand’ Rounds.  Changing it is possible but a major undertaking.

Unfortunately, we’re stuck with Rounds.

If you would like to leave your feedback about this post, click here… and please be gentle.

Today, we launched the $5000 Cash Prize Songwriter Contest:

$5000 Cash Prize.

5 Categories.

5 Judges.

5 Winners.

$5 to enter.

Five song writers will win $1000 each for their winning song or lyric in their category.  Five finalists in each category will be hand-picked by us and presented to five judges for their selections.

Each contest participant will receive a free songwriter contest score card within thirty days of the songwriter contest deadline.

Click here for more details >>

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve accounted for the $1,500 deficit in the $6,000 cash prize for the free songwriting competition.  The issue is detailed here.  You’ll find the amended cash prizes published here.

You will notice that the first prize for each category has been raised from $1,000 to $1,500.

Cool beans.

We’re getting ready to launch a new songwriter competition.

We’re using “5” as the theme:

5 songwriting categories

5 winners in each category

5 judges

$5 submission fee

$5,000 cash prize

Of course, everybody who participates will receive a free contest score card.

What do you think?

I received this email from Aaron Hurst, after he collected on his Lyric Writing Awards prize which consisted of a co-writing and recording session with Pete and Pat Luboff:

Lior,

Thank you very much!  And I also want to thank you and We Are Listening for giving me such a great and beneficial opportunity.  I learned so much from Pat and Pete.  Not only did they help me expand on my songwriting abilities, but also helped me understand the whole songwriting collaboration process even better.  I never thought in a million years that I’d be given a chance such as this!  The demo sounds amazing and they’re pitching it to the upcoming TV show called The Voice.  That’s just beyond me!  This is definitely a dream come true.

In a world full of song sharks and companies that aren’t so honest, it’s so nice to see a group like We Are Listening that still cares about the art of making songs and about helping people like me live their dreams.  Your songwriter contests are the best around and as long as I’m eligible, you’ll be seeing me back in the lyric writer awards every round!

Thank you again, a million times over!

-Aaron-

Leave a comment >>

I received this email this morning:

Hello,

I feel that advertising a songwriter competition as free but then, after going through all the upload etc., asking for money is a bit of a low down trick.  I thought you guys were better than that?

Regards,

S

We ARE better than that.

This is not the first email of this nature that I’ve received since launching our free songwriter competition.  To be clear, the contest is absolutely free.  However, when you’re filling out your entry form, you’ll find options to also submit to our paid songwriter competitions such as The Singer/Songwriter Awards and Lyric Writer Awards.  Simply select “No” for each and “No” for the paid critique, and you will be charged NOTHING for your submission for the Free International Songwriting Competition.

These are not hidden fees or automatic opt-ins.  You have complete control of your entry form.  If you have any ideas as to how we can make this process more transparent and user-friendly, I’m all ears…

Leave a comment >>

It often escapes me why I got into this business.

But from time to time, I am reminded of the thrill of an idea coming to life in words and music.

While I no longer write and record myself, I enjoy just as much, if not more, the experience of watching other musicians realize their musical ideas.

Aaron Hurst, Winner of Round 3 of the Lyric Writer Awards, provided me with just this thrill.  But he didn’t do it alone.

With the aid of We Are Listening’s master writers, Pete & Pat Luboff, the trio set the words to his winning lyric, “Worst of You”, to music to create what I consider to be an awesome collaborative effort.

Congratulations to the three of you for creating a moving piece of music, from idea to tangible finality.