Complaint Review: Song of the Year - Internet

 As they say-if everybody could do it-everybody would. Yet in the big wide wonderful world of commercial music WE know- this is not the case. It is difficult to compose, produce and play meaningful original music. This platform as constructed, as others, provides at minimum cost to-dare I say this -BE competitive. Some people have it -MOST DON'T. And to find out that your NOT going to be the next Beatles, Chet Atkins, Aarow Smith, Stephen Stills can be difficult to take. Especially if you are predisposed to such delusional expressions. As with the MLB, NBA and or NBA the numbers of successful applicants/participants are far and few between. So if you don't make the grade-please for your sake-don't quit your daytime job. Yet more importantly STOP MINIMIZING THE EFFORTS of an organization that 1)charges the same amount as other competitive organized contests e.g., ISC, 2) that does provide a vehicle of hope for the "HOPELESS" and should 3) facilitate a sense of fun for all who participate.

Song of the Year is definitely fraudulent.  I haven’t come across any other songwriting contests that acts as a pitching tool to labels/execs/etc either.  I generally enter songwriting.net each year ONLY because of the potential sponsored prizes.  The contest does nothing in terms of getting the songwriter recognized, even though they promote the contest as such.

I’ve noticed that big names (such as American Authors) were selected on songwriting.net as Grand Prize winners and the contest boasted (in very keen words) that the contest acquired American Authors fame after they won.  However, you will see upon further research that their cd came out (major label)before the contest even closed that year.  They have sent emails to entrants showing AA's success story and "what someone can do in a contest like this" but the truth is, they don’t do anything.  The sponsors are the ones that pay out the prizes, not the contest company.  I know this because I won Overall 2nd Grand Prize one year, Honorable Mention another year, and as a Finalist several years in a row. (makes you wonder if I truly have a gift for writing or they flub/exaggerate the number of people that enter each year). I only enter for the resume builder (if you could call it that) and to get some prizes.

If you are entering these contests in hopes to get your song in the hands of some executive that can do something with it, you're wasting money. All of these contests pocket the money and have the sponsors pay out the prizes.  I did receive about 6,000.00 worth of software the year I placed Overall 2nd Grand Prize so I can at least say songwriting.net is a legitimate contest in that sense but the payout was supposed to be 11,000.00 so they flubbed there too.  They put your song on a compellation cd that does nothing and gets to no one.  I took our winning song to ASCAP heads and they said the song was "eh".  Good but not great and needed to be re-worked.  That goes to show you that these contests boast names because big names may enter and its clout for companies like this to parade as if they had a hand in their success - but in reality they don’t do anything for the writer in terms of connections or songwriting.

Jonathan

 Hi. I read the report about the Song of the Year songwriting contest and I've been suspecting that the contest is scam for a while now. I've entered the lyrics only category several times (have been semi-finalist, runner up and honorable mention). In addition to what the others mention, which I agree on, I would like to add the following: 1. When I enter more than one "song" at the same time, I only get this standard certificate they give out, for one of them (happened twice). Also it only says, your entry into the contest, not the category. 2. The website never seems to be updated with "success stories". When you read about Meghan Trainor (sorry if I spelled it wrong) there's a lot of contest mentions that she has placed in, but Song of the Year is not mentioned. 3. They write about a grand prize winner who has spent the money on a project he does. He exists and the project as well it seems, but there's no mention of winning the contest. 4. If you google the grand prize winners, you are likely to find famous people with that name, but they may be actors, sports people, singers in a totally different genre than their entry, even singers dead like 20 years ago. If you google the writers name together with the song title (or look on YouTube) you don't find it mentioned on other sites than the contest site. 5. When I entered the 4th contest of 2015 they had listed several very famous (and kind of unlikely) artists as judges, with photos, on the front page. These included Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, The Edge from U2 and Steven Tyler, among others (wish I had taken a photo). Later these judges just disappeared from the site and it went back to looking the same as it has for years. 6. The photos they have on their site showing "winners" with artists are so blurry you can hardly see who it is. The picture where someone is holding this big check is also blurry so that you can't read the name, nor the amount on the check. And yes, paying out 80,000 dollars worth of prizes 4 times a year, when their "sponsors" say they don't sponsor them, just can't be true. The huge difference between the third place and the two top positions is kind of suspicious. My guess is that they don't pay out the 1st and 2nd place prizes, perhaps 3rd. The entry fee for this contest is 30(!) dollars per entry so if it's scam it's a total ripoff. These people prey on the dreams of songwriters to get rich themselves. The contest still runs and I think it is a major one. I've entered for the last time, that's for sure!

 I read your report and almost have the identical story. All the way down to being contacted by another contestant informing me I had won, which news to me? I won in 2014 and only found out today May 31st 2015? I would love to go after these guys and get them shutdown if it is a scam. Feel free to contact me to discuss further.