Our readers kick butt. Seriously, you guys, you rock. The discussion has been great and my inbox has been full of really insightful stuff.
The American Idol Songwriter contest seems like the kind of poke our working musicians’ hornet’s nest has needed for some time. In some ways, it feels like validation for a lot of musicians that toil at an often thankless craft. At the same time, we have been bombarded by so many crummy contests over the past decade, that it’s natural for so many people to be suspicious about the intent of the producers.
Perhaps I sound like a Pollyanna when I say that I honestly don’t think these folks are out to screw anyone over. There’s a lot of discussion here and elsewhere about whether it’s a good idea to enter. For some folks, this contest is perfect. For other people, not so much. It’s up to you to decide what’s right for you.
Here are some things we’ve learned about the American Idol Songwriter competition that weren’t so clear a few days ago:
- A close reading of the rules makes it appear that EVERY one of the Top 20 writers selected will enjoy a one-song publishing option with a $10,000 advance against royalties. This is not a “publishing deal” in the traditional sense, but its terms are similar.
- As with all song options, there is a danger that a song you write could make the Top 20 and never get used by anyone. That’s a risk that all songwriters take, and you remedy that by doing what Dolly Parton and Diane Warren have done — write something EVERY DAY. If you’re going into this contest with only one completed song under your belt, it’s unlikely you’ll win.
- You can enter more than one song. The rules were a little confusing here, but the intention of the producers is pretty clear — they would be more than happy to take your $10 again and again. Is this the right strategy? Probably only if you have a huge songwriting range and you want to try to submit songs from different points in your spectrum. If all your songs sound alike, you may be better off going with just the best one.
- You can enter only unpublished material. If you’re collecting ASCAP or BMI royalties from a song, you can’t enter it. I’m betting at least one song will end up getting disqualified because of this.
Technorati Tags: music+business, american+idol, songwriting+contest
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LARRY, and others…
i finally had success (on my MAC) by not using Safari, or such, but by downloading Firefox/Mozilla from the Apple site (for free). was day & night difference, and my frown turned upside down, once page 2 of the upload process finally appeared. my song was 3.8 megs. hurry. see you in hollyweird.
Marjorie: Jesse A. is the same person who directly responded to an e-mail I sent last week to askfox@fox.com. He is legit…an American Idol Songwriting Contest representative. Submit more than one song and don’t worry about it! I submitted two songs yesterday. They ask for $10 per song.
I talked to Jesse at 19 as well. He was quite clear that you can enter more than one song and that ONLY the winner gets the $10,000 advance.
What he would not answer is what happens to the publishing rights of non-winning songs. In one email he seemed to indicate that 19 keeps the publishing rights to them as well. In a follow up, he advised having a lawyer take a look at things and refused to comment further.
Interesting and confusing.
I’m glad for Ronnyand his upload success (on a MAC) How about for those of us on a PC?
And Carla is back. FIREFOX browser. Just think Firefox browser. I didn’t even know what a fire fox was until about 30 minutes ago. I downloaded it onto my PC and had no problem uploading my 2.8 MB MP3. That’s FIREFOX. Thank you Mozilla or Mozillo or whatever you are.
I finally got my song to upload – but it definitely has to do with internet speed. I tried it at one girlfriend’s house who has regular DSL and it didn’t work. Moved onto another’s and she had high speed – worked like a charm!
For those of you still struggling with submitting MP3’s (that are under 4MB) – take a look that the name of your MP3 file. If you have spaces, dashes, or certain symbols within the file name, the AI site may not accept it. There is also a lot of shareware/freeware on the NET that can compress MP3 files if you are struggling to hit the 4MB (iTunes doesn’t compress WAV to MP3 files too well — files are still pretty big).
I’ve submitted a couple of songs successfully without issue over the past week.
Can someone who has submitted already tell me what kind of bio information they ask for? Do we need to write up a whole bio to be ready to submit after uploading the song? Or does it just ask for basic information like name, age, location? My co-writer went to check in and saw that it has bio questions but couldn’t read the actual questions until uploading the file which we’re not ready to do. So once you upload the file, what does it ask for exactly in terms of bio? Thanks!
Howard – it’s pretty much a blank form giving you 100 words to talk about yourself, your songwriting, etc… It specifically says that you have 100 words and “use them wisely.”
Ta-Da! Finally got it to work, followed your lead Kami! Went to a friend with DSL’s house and that did the trick. What’s the deal with that, not everyboydy has DSL? What a pain. I can’t wait till my song is ignored so I can get on with my simple life. Good luck guys.
BonJoeV – thank you! I had underscores _ in my file name, I removed them and it uploaded fine. Wish me luck!
Bio answer – they bascially ask for a brief bio – and you only get 100 words, which is nothing. So, basically, you have enough space to mention how old you r are, a line or two about your history in songwriting, influences, etc., and a mention about what your current situation is….that alone takes 100 words…
Heather,
In response to your question about publishing rights:
If your song is selected as one of the finalists, it appears that you will have to enter into a publishing agreement with them in order to continue participating. Even if you don’t win, that publishing agreement will still be in force. That’s probably not a bad thing, and may provide you with additional opportunities. But if you are offered a contract, definitely have it reviewed by a qualified attorney, specifically an entertainment lawyer. And if you’re not selected as a finalist, or you are but decide not to accept their contract and continue, then you retain all rights to your song. You are still the legal copyright owner, and they have no claim on your song or any rights to do anything with it.
Bob
Having problem with size of your submission? I was too, and kept reducing my file until it was about 3 megs, and then it worked. My 3.7 meg file wouldn’t go through, even though they say anything 4 megs and under will work. Don’t know if I was an isolated case, but it eventually worked with 3 meg file.
Good luck all!
J
Larry – you’re quite welcome, but I’ll only wish you luck if I’m eliminated and you’re in the Top 20. 🙂
Howard – you’re asked for a 100-word or less writeup on yourself as a songwriter (and you are limited to 100 words). Influences, first song you wrote, etc. I simply cut-and-pasted from my band website and then wordsmithed.
I’ve been trying to pay with my valid credit card and it keeps says “card code is invalid” I’ve check many times and I am doing it correctly. Is anyone else having this problem?
Question for Mac users – after getting a satisfactory recording thru GarageBand, I got as far as getting the song to iTunes and thru the ‘Convert Selection to MP3’ without a hitch. The hitch came when I looked at the size of the file on iTunes – 34MB! I saved the song again thru GarageBand as a compact/small and then AGAIN as a compact/micro. I repeated the process to get it to iTunes, but it still claims it’s 34MB. Am I missing something?!?!? I have read about the downloads for compression but am not sure what the best choice is for a Mac (OS 10.4.9, with – groan – dial-up). I have left word for my brother, who knows such things, but I thought I’d ask here as well. What a terrific forum this has been for a greenhorn in the truest sense!
Back again! Found success with compressing the song file; I am attempting to upload the version that is 3.1MB, but as soon as I click on Upload Track, the file disappears and ‘No file selected’ pops back up. It LOOKS like something is happening, but I can’t see how if ‘No file selected’ is all I see. Any ideas?
Dee Dee, I had the same problem. I re-entered it 5 times and it kept saying “invalid”. One of the numbers in my 3-number code was a zero and just for giggles on that 6th attempt I punched in an o (oh) and voila – it worked! So if you have a zero, try an oh. This is so confusing.
To all mac/garage band users. I successfully submitted my song last week. Here’s how I did it. I recorded in garageband, went to “export to iTunes” in the file menu. Then went to iTunes and “convert selection to AAC” from the Advanced Menu. That only converted it to mp4. I then downloaded jhymn http://hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/. And converted to mp3. jhymn worked great for me.
Has anyone had problems with actually submitting a song….I can’t get past the MP3 upload stage. I continue to get a “technical diffuculty” message from their end since yesterday.
Not clear on what “moderaton” means?
Ted, you dear man! I do have a zero in my code. Tried your zany method and it worked! Pas de probleme. I have been so frustrated and had finally accepted that I would not be able to enter. Thank you for your creativity. I bet you have a great song. I hope to “see” you in the top twenty. Dee Dee
About the American Idol song writing contest, do you absolutely HAVE to have a musical accompaniment before they’ll accept your submission?? I have written a great song and have the lyrics and melody with my voice recorded singing it and downloaded it to an MP3. I am not musically inclined and cannot find a musician in such short time frame. I only found out about the contest 1 week ago. Do you know if they will still consider it if I don’t have an instrument on it? I don’t see why it would matter that much since they’re going to do a complete arrangement for it anyway. Please let me know something ASAP. THANKS!!! I’m sure I’m not the only person wanting to know this!!
I had no trouble last night uploading my song. I use a PC with Internet Explorer 7 and I have FiOS (optical DSL). The only issue I had was on the BIO page. I did not have one typed out ahead of time. Me and my friend that I wrote the song with were making our BIO and editing it and it took 15 min, but when we tried to go to the ENTRY FEE page it reset and we had to retype it again really fast. So you really have to move fast on the submission website or you will have to start over again.
Also, I had trouble using my hotmail account to register with. I had read the statement that it might cause trouble, but I figured it would go to my junk folder, but it never did. I created a Gmail account and had no trouble at all with that.
On another note, I am a bit perterbed about them using the original song files for the voting process. I mean, in the guide on the site, they say it would make no difference on the quality of the recording as to the choices they will make to get into the top 20, but they never said that the file you uploaded would be used for voting. Then general public won’t recognize how great your song is…all they will hear is a half recorded version, which is what most people will have entered in this contest because that is what the rules on the site talked about, just using a voice and an instrument. So I think they really should have had their guy that always plays piano on the show play it and have one singer sing the songs and they could do a basic production to show off your song without worrying about the stupid public. This was not a singing contest or a recording or a producing contest, it was a songwriting contest, and the dumb general public at large will not be voting on the song, only the singing. So this might really create a problem for this contest. I truly hope that when they choose the top 20, that they do not choose overly produced songs, and just stick to the basic voice/instrument type of entries.
The one thing I am not sure about though is who can vote. I don’t believe they are going to do the voting over the phone. The site says you have to be registered to vote, so maybe that means only the people (you might say peers) that registered for song uploads can vote on the top 20? I am guessing that anyone can register with an email address to vote on the website, but that will limit the number of people voting. The number of votes on the song will be very small compared to the phone votes that the singers get. Who knows, maybe they are going to make the song voting on the phone as well? I am tending to think not. They aren’t even going to do a TV special on it like they had originally planned, and that would have been the only way to do phone voting. I think it will be web only, and that will mean less people able to vote for the songs. Maybe that is a good thing?
What do y’all think?
to Jeanie in response to #73….
that is sort of a gray area. i believe they want a “song” which is “music and lyrics”. it could be argued that lyrics are just words without singing and that the singing of a melody is music, so if you did not have an instrument playing the chords of your song then that might be just fine. melody implies chords, so you might get away with it. but most demo songs written by songwriters have the chords playing on a piano or guitar (instrument) and the melody and lyrics being sung (voice). so that might make the A&R staff throw it out because they don’t want to have to be a writer and determine the chords for you. if they did that, they would be co-writing the song with you and they can’t do that. so my thoughts are 50/50 on your situation, but sort of slightly leaning towards the fact that what you entered will probly not be good enough. really hope things work out for you though….good luck 🙂
Jeanie:
You might want to reference the 4/15 posting from “Jesse A”, who claims to be a representative of this competition. If it is a good song with a strong, distinctive melody, and you sing it well, it just might impress their reviewers, who will know a good song when they hear it (or so Jesse A claims). However, if you do make it into the final 20, you could be at a disadvantage. The average listener will most likely be more impressed by an entry that does have instrumental accompaniment and a good arrangement than by something sung a capella. But if can’t find musicians to work with on recording your song with accompaniment…well, it only costs you 10 bucks and a little time and effort to enter, so why not give it a try? If selected for the top 20, then at least you’ve gotten the attention of some professional A&R people, and that could lead to something, even if you don’t win.
Bob
I can’t seem to be able to complete the transaction because I keep getting error messages about my credit cards. They are all good cards, but nothing is working. Anybody have any advice?
Folks,
Going to move discussion to the new thread to keep the database happy, and because some common questions are answered:
https://spinme.com/2007/04/more-questions-answered-about-the-american-idol-songwriting-contest/