Half of the songwriters I know are busy filing their taxes. The other half are working hard to get their entries into the American Idol Songwriter competition. The deadline for both is the same: tomorrow.
We’ve had a really vibrant discussion going on in my previous post about the American Idol contest. If you haven’t had a chance to poke through the comments, here are some more key points.
First, Jesse from 19 Entertainment, who has worked very hard to answer questions from our readers (and from other entrants) made a great summary of the most asked questions about the contest:
1. You may enter as often as you like. There is a $10 entry fee per song.
2. Songs will NOT be re-recorded prior to posting the final 20 for
public voting. We will take the source files (aiff, wav, etc) where
available and perhaps clean it up and check for volume parity but
that’s about it.3. The upload process is working. In the last 9 hours alone we’ve
received well over 500 songs and that’s simply a random sampling.4. Every song is reviewed by an A&R staff member. There is no advantage whatsoever to submitting one song multiple times.
5. You must include both music and lyrics to participate. You do not
need a full band or professional recording studio. A&R staff can
recognize a good song. That being said… is there an advantage in the
public voting phase to having a professional mix or accomplished
musicians accompany you or perform your work? Perhaps.6. Your song entry must not be encumbered of a publishing deal in
order for you to participate in the contest as the contest winner will
receive an exclusive publishing deal for the winning song.7. All writers must be noted and able to legally participate
according to the rules. You are legally attesting to such upon
entering. Do not misrepresent yourself as you will be disqualified.8. Voting closes at 11:59 pm pacific time on April 17th, 2007.
9. Online voting begins May 2nd.
A few other technical notes:
- Folks on Macs seem to have trouble making entries with the Safari web browser. If that’s the case for you, download Firefox and give it a whirl. That seems to do the trick for most folks.
- Make sure you’re uploading your song on a broadband connection. Most folks trying to use dial-up to upload a 3MB song are getting timed out. If you have to drop your songs to a flash drive or a CDR and upload them from Kinko’s so be it.
- The songs will not be re-recorded for the contest, so submit your very best recording. You may want to recruit some friends to help you with this. Even though it’s a songwriting competition, online voters will definitely be swayed by good production.
Good luck!
Technorati Tags: american+idol, songwriting, contest
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This is a great site. I found it after I had posted my song but I didn’t have any trouble at all uploading it.
I started my song on Saturday and finished it on Tuesday. I took seriously their request that the song reflect the emotional journey the contestant had been through and wrote a song that I imagine an AI winner would sing after winning. Yes it’s a power ballad… but that’s what I write best.
My demo was pretty bad. I went to Radio Shack and bought a computer mic and recorded it on “Audacity” which I downloaded a few hours before the deadline. The quality was pretty bad but I LOVE the song. I now wish I had taken Monday and Tuesday off work to get a better recording and do it justice but what’s done is done.
I too thought that they’d re-record the songs but looking at the time that’s left… I can see how that won’t happen. Still, there was that clause that said they reserve the right to do whatever they want so here’s hoping…
Tatrix: good job…. especially loved the chorous… very memorable.
Here is a link to a site where others have posted their songs: http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=493855&page=1#Post493855
Good luck to all!
I personally like demos. Something honest about them. Anyway, I read somewhere…maybe here…that they’ll take your masters and clean em up. So you’ll send a WAV file and they’ll give it to a mastering engineer to cleanup as best possible. I suppose in theory you could swap a more complete version or better mixed version when they request the master. Though it did say on the AI website that you must make the master “immediately” available if selected. I don’t know how immediate is “immediately”.
Ann…I hear you loud and clear. I keep thinking that if the song made it to the top 20…I would want to call everyone I know and get them to vote….but I know they’d go in a listen to the song!!
American Idol must know that non musicians do not know how to tell a good song without all the production surrounding it. They should re-think this and record all the top 20 songs…on an equal level. They could make them all very unproduced…but with a decent singer.
thanks Jeffery C.
Did you all get any kind of confirmation that your entry had been successfully submitted? I am wondering whether they even received my song and apparently I am the only one worrying (which causes me more worry). I used my mom’s email address since mine is AOL and they suggested using another account. Trying to upload my song with my AOL dialup did not work so I emailed my mom the song and lyrics and bio and I talked her through the entry over the phone with my credit card info and she entered it all on her mac. (she lives in a different town) She said when she had everything entered and hit “submit entry”, it gave her the “this may take a moment please be patient” and then that little message went away and she was just looking at the screen with no error messages and no confirmation- no nothing. She hit submit again and the same thing happened. If I never hear anything I will always wonder if they even got my song! Should I be worrying? Did anyone else get a confirmation message?
to Jeffrey C…
I listen to talk radio in the car, BUT I listen to music stations ALL day at work, as do my other co-workers, plus my kids download their favorite songs from the net and play them over and over again. My point about “hooks”, as I’m sure you know, is that a good song MUST have a good hook and strong lyrics. The hook makes it memorable, repeatable, singable, playable and long-lived. We all know the reason radio loops certain songs over and over again is because these songs “hook” the listeners so they stick around long enough for the advertisers try to sell stuff to them in-between songs. Radio might be “dead” as you say, but ALL the more reason to listen to what it is playing because it needs the absolute best stuff to keep people engaged in that forum. The reason radio didn’t play the past Idol songs is they lacked great, memorable hooks. The only reason these songs went gold or better is because enthusiastic Idol fans went out and supported their winner by buying the single. I think anyone who wants to write a great song needs to learn from radio. I stand by the premise that if you write a song that gets radio play, you’ve got a winner. The American Idol Songwriting Contest rules emphasized that they were looking for a great song with a strong hook and strong lyrics. Anybody who closely examines the hits played on radio (or the popular downloads or the #1 singles) will learn a great deal about what gets and keeps people’s attention. I think American Idol wants a finale song that, years from now, people will be able to sing on the spot, rather than have one remembered (if they can even remember it) for how “bad” it was. That is their current problem, and thus were the comments from Nigel in the article which I can’t find anymore, since it’s been buried in all the hoopla about the contest. I think Idol was looking for a “formula” song that stepped up to this challenge. We’ll see…won’t we? Also, you tell me…don’t songwriters make BMI/ASCAP royalties off radio play? (By the way, another good “test” of a song is to imagine hearing the instrumental version of it in an elevator (without the words). If it stands up to that test, all the better! Plus, royalties from that, too.) The way I read it somewhere, singers make most of their money off album/single sales and concert touring, not off radio play. Yet, writers also take a cut of album sales? It seems to me the best case scenario is to be a singer-songwriter…
to Tatrix, in response to # 34….
wow, that is one damned good song….is that yours? or someone else’s that entered the contest? i would not be surprised if that one made the top 20…..
it sort of has an echo of the band Chicago…but also a hint of Keane as well….i really liked it.
It would be possible to re-record each song, vocalist + piano. Unfortunately I doubt they have the time.
I read the “Guide” and also thought they were going to re-record each top 20 tune. Always submit with the best production you can afford.
Ann is right – it’s about the hook and the lyrics. Sound easy enough but it’s an art, a science and a craft to create these elements simultaneously.
You can get lucky with a turn of a phrase and a catchy note or two but putting it all together is an intentional act.
Here’s a new thread to keep the discussion going!
https://spinme.com/u/23