SONG CONTEST BLOG

We polled 617 musicians who have entered a song contest (not necessarily ours) at some point.  56% indicated that they will “never” enter a song contest again.

Here are the top 8 reasons why:

1. Little or no feedback from the judges (20%)

2. No way of knowing if my song was heard (19%)

3. Entering a song contest costs too much money (16%)

4. All I got was a form “Not Selected” letter (15%)

5. Entering a song contest should be free (13%)

6. No critique or critique costs extra (7%)

7. Song contest organizations are shady (6%)

8. My songs are not good enough (4%)

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Graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in Public Relations and Entertainment Communications, Eavan began her music career as an A&R intern at Atlantic Records. In 2007, she joined the Artist Management Department at Vancouver-based Nettwerk Music Group. Out of Nettwerk’s LA office, Eavan works directly with the artists Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer, Maria Taylor, Griffin House, and Lucy Schwartz on a day to day basis. In 2009, she began working with manager Kevin Kocher for the artists Chromeo, Datarock, and Fan Death, as well. In her free time she throws parties and books shows with other music industry friends under the moniker “Less Jack More Jill” and is quite fond of gummy bears and puppies.  We’re delighted to welcome Eavan to our panel of song contest judges.

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For his prize, Vincent Robert Trocchia, winner of Round 3 of The 2009 Lyric Writer Awards, joined forces with We Are Listening’s songwriting duo, Pat and Pete Luboff to polish his lyric, set it to music, and produce an outstanding demo.

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Next week, we’re launching our proprietary user management system.  Big words for a small organization!

Think of it as your personal song contest and critique status manager and editor, accessible by clicking on My Account (at the top right of every page on our site).

What is a Status?

We assign a status to your contest submission or critique the second your transaction is complete.  For contests, your status is Received until the contest deadline.  After the deadline, it’s In Review for up to 30 days.  Within 30 days, at the point that the judges have made their final selections, you receive a final status: Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner.

With critiques, it’s simpler.  As soon as you purchase your critique, your entry is In Review.  When the reviewer has completed the critique (within 14 days), the status is Complete.

Why is Status important?

1. So you can self-edit your entries.

For example, if you had trouble uploading your song file, wish to make changes to your lyric or even want to substitute your entire contest submission, as long as your status is Received, you can!  And you can do it in just a couple of clicks by logging into your account.

2. So you can keep a record of your important communications with us.

When we assign your final status (Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner) or complete your critique, we notify you via email.  As of next week, these emails will be saved in your account, along with every single detail associated with your contest entry or critique.

How do I access these details?

By clicking on Details on the right of each contest or critique item in your account!

If a final status has been assigned to your contest entry (Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner) you can click on that to view the email that was sent to you, by whom and when.

Why did we go to the trouble?

1. So you have total control over and insight into the service that you are paying us for.

2. So you no longer need to depend on emails from us.  We will continue sending them, you can be sure of that, but all the information you can possibly wish to have about your contest entry or critique will be at your fingertips.

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I’d delighted to announce the addition of Kristen Cifelli to the We Are Listening team.

A schooled musician and seasoned performing songwriter, Kristin will be joining our Artist Development division and heading our song critique service.

Kristin took the music scene by storm in 1999 with the release of her debut album, Silver Bowl, to critical acclaim, earning her a Boston Music Award Nomination.  Her second release, So Long My Love, brought her increased notoriety, with a Nomination for Best Album and a win for Best Song (“Show Them”) in the Independent Music Awards in 2006.  Early in 2002, Kristin contributed her song, “Martyr”, on the Sony/Heavy Rotation Records compilation, Shekinah 13 Artists, which celebrates the diverse female alumni of Berklee College of Music. The compilation is being distributed by Sony/Epic Records, with part of the proceeds going to help young artists at Berklee College of Music. Upon the release of Shekinah 13 Artists, Kristin was featured on the Oxygen Network’s Daily Remix, VH1’s Jump Start, Billboard Magazine, Boston Globe and the Associated Press.

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We Are Listening have teamed up with StudioPros.com for the Lyric Writer Awards, a lyric writing contest with a 360-degree approach to turning the winners’ lyrics into publishable, radio-ready soundtracks.  Learn more…

StudioPros.com brings the studio recording experience, production value, and LA’s finest session musicians and audio professionals to your home at a price you can afford. From quick songwriter demos to radio-ready masters, the entire tracking, mixing, and mastering schedule is managed by you, online and in real-time, from the comfort of your desktop. The StudioPros.com team comprises of session players who have performed with Seal, Jessica Simpson, Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney, among others, and Grammy nominated mixing engineers credited by Wyclef Jean, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, OneRepublic, Beyonce, and more.

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Los Angeles native, Alana Grace, was selected as the winner of Round 6 of The 2008 Singer/Songwriter Awards songwriting contest by We Are Listening’s panel of judges last month.  Having spent most of her childhood in Nashville, today she splits her time between the two cities and just completed a five month recording session in LA with producers Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, Eve 6) and John Fields (Switchfoot, Pink, Andrew WK).  She is now gearing up to promote the concerted musical effort: her debut album titled “Break the Silence” from which her winning song, “Words Escape Me”, was selected.  The album was mixed by industry legends Bob Clearmountain (The Rolling Stones, The Cure, Aerosmith) and Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Hoobastank, Alanis Morissette).

Visit Alana at www.alanagrace.com

Recommended online artist development platforms:

ReverbNation provides marketing and artist development solutions for up and coming musicians that need to “compete, cooperate, and differentiate in an increasingly noisy online environment”.   With a 360-degree approach, ReverbNation offers every tool in the shed for fledgling artists plus social and professional networking solutions in a single hub.

Music Nation, an artist-fan-promoter community, provides an array of music marketing features, as well as song contest and songwriting opportunities.  Perhaps more fan-centric than ReverbNation, Music Nation has also adopted the 360-degree approach to artist development.

OurStage, an artist and fan community that revolves around a “democratic” songwriting contest, has been making a splash as a pull-marketing platform for songwriters and recording artists to receive objective feedback from potential fans.

SellaBand, a vision of the music industry to come, has harnessed the power of niches and created an artist development platform that allows fans to, literally, put their money where their mouth is.  With a low risk and easy to digest financial investment program for music lovers, artists enjoy recording and A&R opportunities if they manage to attract enough “believers”.

YouLicense, the first independent music licensing platform, is where artists and music buyers engage one another and cut out the middle man.  With a host of music licensing opportunities in every imaginable musical genre, YouLicense is an artist development favorite.

MyDrifts is more than just a MySpace music marketing system, it’s an entire suite of music marketing tools for the artist or artist manager that wishes to better target his marketing efforts and learn about his audience.

Sonicbids is an artist development veteran, helping bands get gigs, and promoters book the right bands.  Their community consists of bands, singers, songwriters, and performers of all kinds, and music buyers of all kinds, including singer songwriter competition promoters, music licensors, festival programmers, and more.

We Are Listening currently accepts entries for three international song contests: The Singer/Songwriter Awards, Lyric Writer Awards, and World of Music Awards. 

The Singer/Songwriter Awards is a song contest for songwriters writing original material with English-language lyrics in any genre.  The songs may be the product of more than one songwriter and winners have a choice of six song contest prizes, including a trip to London to record the winning song.  Participants are not required to be the performing artist on the recorded submission. 

The Lyric Writer Awards is an English-language, lyrics-only song contest in any genre.  The lyrics may be the product of more than one lyricist and winners enjoy professional publishing opportunities in the US market. 

The World of Music Awards is a world music genre song contest.  The songs are not required to contain words and, those that do, may be recorded and submitted in any language.  All entries may be the product of a songwriting team and, like The Singer/Songwriter Awards song contest, participants are not required to be the performing artist on the recorded submission.  Winners receive a fully-financed trip to world music festival, WOMEX, accompanied by one of We Are Listening’s music industry veterans.

We Are Listening also provides songwriters and performing artists with an assessment service as well as a special performance-oriented contest called Breaking the Band.  All of this and more on We Are Listening’s music contest page.

When I first arrived in Boston back in 1996 to begin my studies at Berklee College of Music, I had preconceived notions about the process of songwriting.  Like many ‘natural’ songwriters, I felt that songwriting came from within; free from form, rules, or a specific discipline.  I decided to major in songwriting and began to study its craft in the commercial sphere.  During the span of my four year degree, I picked up specific songwriting tools and strategies to make songwriting as much a professional discipline as an intuitive recreation.  Songwriting is as methodical as it is artistic.  Or, rather, ‘professional’ songwriting (i.e. songwriting for recording artists, radio jingles, television etc.) is as much a professional craft as a vocational talent.  For fledgling songwriters, I highly recommend an in-depth revision of ‘successful’ songs from the last two or three decades.  Whether it’s “Yesterday” by The Beatles or “Yellow” by Coldplay, I am confident that you will find patterns – tried and tested songwriting principles – that will guide you when you craft your songs.  Once you have a number of songs you feel good about, go out and get as much professional feedback as you can.  Try entering a song competition too (if the organizers provide an assessment service).  Remember: the record industry is founded on superb songwriting because that’s where the money’s at!