I got a great idea from one of our readers who sent in a new masthead… since you’re all so creative and since we recently revived our old logo, I thought I’d let you take a spin at designing the…
Songwriting Contest Secrets: Who’s Really Judging? (Part 2)
Earlier today, I asked if it was “fair” that many songwriting contests use interns to screen entries. It all comes down to what is promised in a contest’s terms and conditions. Unfortunately, many songwriting contests use vague terminology in their…
Songwriting Contest Secrets: Who’s Really Judging? (part 1)
So far in this special series, I’ve written about some of the myths and realities of songwriting contests, the reasonableness of entry fees, and the real involvement of contest sponsors. Today, I’m tacking one of the most subjective elements of…
ASCAP/BMI Royalty Monitor for YouTube Videos?
Mark Cuban wonders aloud whether YouTube’s announcement that popular videos will start earning royalties will spawn a videomakers’ guild or performing rights society along the lines of ASCAP or BMI. It’s an interesting concept, since statutory royalties for songwriters have…
Songwriting Contest Secrets: Check Out Your Sponsors
It used to be that, to rip off musicians, you had to take out an ad in Rolling Stone and open up a post office box. At least then, a disgruntled contest entrant could sit outside the post office at…
Time for Your Rampant Self Promotion
Because there are only so many hours in the day, we don’t have time to review all the unsolicited submissions we receive here at TCM World Headquarters. However, despite the admonishment on our contact page, they arrive anyway. Our new…
American Idol Songwriter Finalists Are Announced!
And we’ve got song-by-song discussion on our boards. Track these topics:
Songwriting Contest Secrets: Entry Fee as Red Flag?
If you type the words “songwriting contest” into Google, you’re going to come back with close to a million entries. And that number is growing all the time. Too many scam artists are realizing that it’s far too easy to…
Songwriting Contest Secrets: Myths and Realities
The American Idol songwriting contest is probably the highest profile event of its kind for songwriters in the past ten years, if not more. For all of our talk about the importance of building an audience and playing gigs, songwriters…
Get Ready to Vote for American Idol Songwriter
They told us that voting on the American Idol songwriting contest would begin on May 2. They just didn’t tell us when. In the meantime, the speculation still abounds about whether or not all twenty finalists have actually been chosen…
More American Idol Songwriting Contest Discussion
It’s still going — over 2,500 posts strong on our first discussion thread, as well as dozens of songs in the song critique area. We’ve just opened up a second American Idol Songwriter discussion thread to keep the server happy…
Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero – Best Fan Marketing Ever
While Nancy at Online Fandom covered this nearly a month ago, the guys at 37signals have a pretty thorough recap of the tremendous marketing campaign behind the new Nine Inch Nails record. It’s a great example of the kinds of…