SpinTunes 18 Official Rules

Welcome to SpinTunes 18. I'm Micah Sommersmith, returning for my second time as contest administrator, and I'm excited to begin a new tournament!

If you’ve competed before, welcome back! The rules are largely the same as in past contests. Changes since SpinTunes 17 include:

• Voting in the Final Round: Only eliminated competitors (and not the finalists themselves) will vote for the winner.
• The addition of the optional, non-competitive Bonus Round, described below.
• Clarifications to the guidance concerning submission formats, including submission of cover art.
• Edits to some of the language concerning judging and challenges.

I'll also remind you that there is a Suggestion Box that you can use to submit suggestions for challenges or rule changes at any time. You'll find it in the left-hand sidebar if you're viewing this on a PC.

If you have any questions about any of the rules, feel free to contact me at SpinTunesContest@gmail.com.

Signing Up

To compete, contestants will need to fill out the sign-up form here by September 24.

Schedule

The contest begins on September 25, and the full schedule is posted here. There will be 4 rounds of competition. At the beginning of each round a challenge will be posted on this website. You will then have nine days to write, record & send in your song, which should meet the conditions of the challenge.

Five days after you submit your song, the next challenge will be posted. During these five days, the songs will be played at a listening party, and the judges will vote on them, review them, and prep for the next round.

Immediately following the final round, there will be an optional, non-competitive Bonus Round, during which participants are invited to cover one or more songs by other contestants from the previous four rounds. The Bonus Round will run concurrently with the judging period for the fourth round, and the contest winner will be announced at the Bonus Round listening party.

Judging

Judges will not compete in the contest, but will be allowed to shadow if they choose. Any shadow on which a judge has collaborated will not be eligible for Wild Card Reinstatement (more on that below).

Judges will collectively determine whether each song met or failed to meet the challenge. Songs that fail to meet the challenge will be disqualified. Songs that met the challenge will be ranked.

Each round, the judges will rank all the songs of that round from their favorite to least favorite. Judges will consider all aspects of the entries, including lyrics, music, performance and production, as well as how well the songs met the challenge, but the criteria for ranking is the prerogative of each judge. Usually, trying to "game the system" to appeal to individual judges' prejudices is a fool's errand: your best bet is to make the best version of your song that you can make. Judges' rankings are final.

I will not officially rank songs unless one of the judges cannot judge that round. Then I may step in.

Judges will also, to the best of their ability, provide reviews of all competing songs, as will I.

I am the alternate judge. If a judge is unable to do his/her job, I'll step in and take over. If the judge has to withdraw from the contest totally, I'll fill in until I can find a replacement.

Scoring

Scoring is by rank. Each judge will rank the songs from 1 (most favorite) to n (least favorite)  Then all judges’ rankings will be combined and the songs will be sorted according to total score (low to high). The winner of the round has the lowest total score.

If there is a tie on the elimination threshold, I will determine the winner. If I am acting as a temporary judge, then in case of a tie the songs will be ranked in the order they were submitted.

Scoring is not cumulative.

Eliminations

There are several ways to be eliminated from the contest:

• If you fail to meet a deadline,
• If your official entry is disqualified for failing to meet the challenge,
• If you score is below the elimination cutoff,
• If you exhibit poor sportsmanship.

The cutoff is determined by the number of competitors at the start of the competition. There will be 4 competitors in the final round. So I'll subtract 4 from the number of competitors in Round One and divide the remainder by 3. That's the number of people who will be eliminated each round. It will not matter how they are eliminated, so even if you don't score well you might get lucky if a lot of people fail to meet the deadline or challenge. That makes it worth your while to submit a song even if you don't think it's good or if the challenge is particularly hard.

Final Round

The top-ranked four competitors in Round Three will pass on to the final round.

In this round, the judges do not vote, although they'll still review the songs. Instead, everyone who has been eliminated in any of the preceding rounds (who also submitted at least 1 song) will be allowed to rank the songs. In a change from previous tournaments, final round contestants themselves will not vote.

If there is a tie, the judges will vote to break the tie. If there is still a tie, then I will choose the winner.

The winner of the final round is the winner of the tournament.

Bonus Round

New this year, the optional, non-competitive Bonus Round will occur immediately after, and concurrent to the judging of, the Final Round. 

During the Bonus Round, competitors will not submit original songs. Instead, participants may choose anyone else's song from a previous round and record their own cover version. Multiple submissions are welcome. Re-imaginings in different styles are very welcome, but substantial changes to lyrics or melody should be made judiciously - the original songwriter should still recognize their song!

Although the Bonus Round officially runs the week after the Final Round, you may submit covers anytime during the tournament. For instance, if you want to cover a song from Round One, you may submit your version during, or in the gaps between, Rounds Two, Three or Four. (You've got plenty of time during the judging periods!)

The Bonus Round will have its own listening party, one week after the Final Round listening party. After the Bonus Round songs are played, the Final Round (and tournament) winner is revealed and the winning song is played on more time. 

Prize

If you are fortunate enough to win the contest, you will win the admiration and respect of your peers and a Highly Coveted No-Prize.

No trophy. No cash. We might come up with some token, but the real prize is knowing you won, and the music itself. If you need gifts and thousands of fans to motivate you to write songs then this competition ain't for you.

The winner will be invited to be a judge in the next competition.

Challenges

Challenges can be just about anything. You could be given a theme, restrictions, a technical challenge, a mood, a story, a character type... anything. However, challenges will not require specific instrumentation or recording technique: Whether you're a full band with your own studio, or a single person with a ukulele and a voice memo app on your phone, the only barrier to meeting the challenge will be your own ability as a songwriter and performer.

There are some basic requirements for all challenges. They won't be listed every time, so here they are:

For the purposes of this contest, a "song" is defined as having lyrics and music. Unless specifically stated otherwise, you must include both and both must be newly-composed in response to the challenge.

Rap is ok, but the music must be substantially original. 

Spoken word is risky, but it might be ok, so long as the music is distinctively original and integral to the piece. 

Unless specifically requested, instrumentals are not ok.

You must provide written lyrics when you submit your song. Those lyrics must actually appear in the song as performed. Minor deviations are common: people sometimes sing a few words differently from the written lyrics, but you cannot submit an instrumental and a separate lyrics sheet.

You are not required to use the title of the challenge in your lyrics, or as the title of your own song.

Hopefully you're forced to do things you've never done before.

The challenges will be chosen or created by myself and the judges before the contest starts. The SpinTunes Suggestion Box has been active for a while now and some of the challenges may be taken from or inspired by suggestions there. You're encouraged to continue submitting suggestions as they come to you.

As we choose challenges, the judges and I will make an effort to devise judging criteria. You may get hints when the challenge is posted, so read carefully. Keep in mind that anything you're told to do, you must do, so getting too "clever" with the challenges can be risky. However, anything not spelled out is up to interpretation, and creativity is important. The judges may or may not be forthcoming on what is valuable in their eyes. Make your choices and do your best.

Shadows

SpinTunes is unique in that you're encouraged to play along even if you're not competing. Sometimes it's just fun to try a challenge... sometimes you might want to "test drive" the contest before signing up as a competitor. Or you may have been eliminated in an earlier round, and still want to continue.

You can still submit your effort as a "shadow" entry. These unofficial entries will be played at the listening party and will be included in the album, but they will not be ranked. Individual judges may choose to review shadows, but they are not obligated to do so.

Shadows don't have to be new. Since they're not ranked, there's no risk in taking more liberties with the challenge. HOWEVER...

Wild Card Reinstatements

IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE REINSTATED into the competition after having been eliminated. Here's how that works:

If the number of people who submit songs in a round is less than the pre-defined elimination cut-off, I may re-instate a previously eliminated competitor who has provided a "shadow" for the current round. For instance, if there are 8 competitors in Round Three, but only 7 of them submit entries, then I may "promote" a qualifying Round Three shadow from someone who was eliminated in Round Two. If nobody from Round Two shadowed, but someone from Round One did, I may promote their shadow. This holds true for every round, including the final round.

Once promoted, that shadow is judged and ranked on equal footing with all of the other entries from that round. Furthermore, that competitor may move forward in the competition as if they had never been eliminated.

It is conceivable that a person who was eliminated in an early round could shadow, be promoted, and win the competition, but only if the shadow they submit meets the challenge.

So SHADOW.

Caveats:

Shadow entries that are submitted late are not eligible for Wild Card Reinstatement. (Think about it... it would just be immediately DQ'd again.)

Your shadow must meet the challenge. Again, I'm not going to promote a shadow that I'm going to have to disqualify.

Only shadows entered by those who were eliminated by rankings may be reinstated. An artist eliminated by disqualification will not be reinstated.

A shadow on which a judge appears as a collaborator will not be reinstated due to conflict of interest. (My advice: if you want to collaborate on a shadow with a judge, it's fine, but enter another shadow minus the judge for safety).

As to which shadows are re-instated, that's at the judges' discretion. However, significant weighting will be given to those competitors who were ranked highest prior to their elimination.

Submitting Entries

An entry must be received by the given deadline. Otherwise it will be posted as a shadow, and the competitor will be eliminated (and ineligible for later reinstatement). "Received" means that I must have received a link to the finished song by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail in my inbox. PLEASE do not wait until the last hour to send me something. If there is a blackout in your area, your computer crashes, or your dog eats your thumb drive... I will not care. One minute late is too late.  Deadlines are given in the US Eastern time zone. The SpinTunes website will have a countdown timer with exactly how much time you have until the deadline, and the SpinTunes Google calendar will display deadlines in your local time zone.

You are allowed to send in a "safety" draft of your song early just in case something horrible happens and you miss the deadline. Then you can add polish to your song and send in a better version closer to the deadline. If you miss the deadline for the polished version, then the safety version will be used for judging. However, after judging is done, then the polished version will be included in the album.

SUBMITTING BY EMAIL:

Send your file in a format that BandCamp accepts. (.aiff, .wav or .flac) (at least 16-bit/44.1kHz) Do not send MP3s.

Name your file the song's title + your band name, without punctuation. Like this: "Helicopter on Mars - All the Robots.wav"

The subject line of the e-mail should identify the challenge and your band's name. Something like this would be fine: "ST18R1 - All the Robots".

Include the song lyrics in the body of the e-mail. (remember, no instrumentals)

Include information on anyone that needs credited if you collaborated with someone.

ALTERNATE FILE SHARING OPTIONS:

If your file is too big for an email attachment, you may email me a link to where I can download the song. The email still needs to land in my inbox by the deadline.

If you have a Bandcamp account you can just send me a link to your song if you include all the info I mentioned for emails. Info such as lyrics and song credits can be included in the email or on the song's Bandcamp page. Make sure you have it set as a free download, and have it set so that I don't have to put in an e-mail to download it if you pick this option.

You may also use a file sharing service such as DropBox, WeTransfer, Google Drive, etc. Include in the email any required information (such as lyrics) that you couldn't include in the file. Make sure I have permission to download the file, and please follow directions so your file doesn't wind up in my spam or trash folder accidentally.

Please don't send me a SoundCloud link. SoundCloud downloads are in a format that Bandcamp doesn't accept, so I have to re-encode them as .wav files before uploading. I've also gotten some complaints about the sound quality on the final SpinTunes album differing from the original entry after submission via SoundCloud. If you want to make sure everyone hears your song as you intended it to sound, use one of the options listed above.

SONG BIOS:

In addition to lyrics and any necessary credits, you are welcome to include a "song bio", with any information you feel is useful. This could include your inspiration for the song, citations for any obscure references within the lyrics, an explanation of how your song met the challenge, etc. Some challenges may require you to supply certain info in your song bio. Since the judges are volunteers with lives outside of SpinTunes, song bios can help them zero in on aspects of the song you feel are important. However, if your song requires a multi-paragraph explanation in order to understand and appreciate it, this is probably a sign that it doesn't stand up well on its own, and its ranking may reflect that.

COVER ART:

If you wish, you may submit cover art for your entry, which will be included on the SpinTunes Bandcamp page for your song. This is not required. (The album itself will have cover art from our excellent graphic designer Matt "Shoobs" Schubbe.)

If you choose to submit cover art, it must be at least 1400 x 1400 pixels. Please include it as an email attachment or via one of the file transfer services listed above. Bandcamp requires cover art to be at least 1400 x 1400, but displays it at 1200 x 1200, meaning if you include it in the Bandcamp link to your song, I have to download it and resize it before uploading it again! This results in a lower quality photo and also makes me cranky, both of which we want to avoid.

Song Hosting (the BandCamp Album)

Each round I'll be uploading the songs as an album at the SpinTunes BandCamp site. The songs will be set for free download only. BandCamp makes it easy to download songs; you can share one song individually or the album as a whole.

If you want to be entered into the contest, you must agree to the following:

• You allow your song to be on the album and made available to everyone under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This license allows us to re-distribute the songs and publish them on our Bandcamp page, but leaves you with all other rights. You retain all commercial ownership of your songs. If additional permissions are required for other purposes, we'll ask you.
• You allow your song to be played at the listening party and repeated on the recording of the LP on YouTube. (the license allows this)
• You consent for your song to be considered for a cover version in the Bonus Round, unless you contact me before the Bonus Round explicitly stating that you don't want any cover versions of your song.

If not, best of luck to you, but this is not the contest for you.

Listening Party

Tom Giarrosso ("Tommy G") will be hosting the listening party (the "LP") for each round. The link to the Listening Party will be shared when the challenge is posted. This will be live-streamed on YouTube shortly after the submission deadline for each round and will be recorded for replay on demand. The YouTube live chat will be preserved for reply, so don't say anything in the chat you don't want living on in posterity. Recordings may be made accessible through public access channels under the same Creative Commons license.

This is your chance to get together with the other competitors in one virtual place while the songs are played for the very first time. SpinTunes is a very supportive community, so come get your ego stroked.

Judge Responsibilities

Before the contest starts, the judges will choose challenges in the soooper-secret virtual batcave they'll be invited to.

Each round, the judges will

• Weigh in on whether entries failed to meet the challenge. Typically we'll have 48 hours after the songs get posted to do that. I am the final arbiter for disqualifications, so if you don't speak up in that window of time you'll have to live with a decision I make on my own.  I typically go with the majority decision of those who speak up.
• Rank the entries for each round. If a song has been disqualified, it is ranked last, even if you think it shouldn't have been disqualified. If a song has not been disqualified and you think it should have been, you're free to rank it as your conscience dictates. Rankings should reflect your overall opinion of all aspects of the song, including lyrics, music, performance and production.
• Review entries each round. Shadow entries don't have to be reviewed, but it would be nice if you found the time. You can type up your review or you can vlog it on YouTube. If you decide to vlog your review on YouTube, it needs to be kept private until after I post the reviews on the blog.

Judges are responsible for checking their e-mail, and being generally accessible, especially on deadline nights. Sometimes issues requiring a decision just pop up.

Updates and Results

All contest updates (new challenges, judges' reviews, scores, etc) will be posted at spintunescontest.blogspot.com as well as in the SpinTunes subforum of the SongFight forums. I will also post links to updates on the @SpinTunes Twitter account as well as in the private SpinTunes Facebook group. If you need permission to get a SongFight forum account or to join the Facebook group, let me know.

Song Sharing

They're your songs.  You are allowed to share your songs before the LP. In my opinion the songs will be better if you can go to another musician in this contest, share what you've got and get feedback. So if you want to share with a few friends or fellow competitors before the listening party feel free to do so. Just don't try to get feedback from a judge, or from me, before the submission deadline.

Feel free to use your entries elsewhere, such as FAWM, Song Fight, Nur Ein, etc., keeping in mind the requirement that SpinTunes entries must be original, newly written, and meet the challenge.

Re-recording & Remixes

In previous contests some people sent their song in on time, but then after the deadline wanted to post an updated version onto the album (they added bells & whistles).

That's fine, but you will be judged by what you turned in before the deadline, which is also what will be played at the LP. Remixes will not be added to the album until after the judging is finished for that round.

So anyone who decides they want to make a better mix of their song, and have it replace the one they sent before...that's fine. Send me the info, and I'll switch the files out. I might not do it instantly, but it will be done. These songs are something you should be proud of, and some people are bugged by not being able to add everything they want in that small window I give them...so hopefully this helps...while still being fair.

In the end, album order is determined by how you scored in the round. But until the judges have scored the round, album order is originally determined by submission order.

Your order on the album will change if you send in an updated file. Keep in mind that this can be important to tie-breakers!

Multiple Songs

You can enter ONE official entry each round until you are eliminated. There is no limit on how many shadow songs you can enter each round. If you are still in the contest and have multiple songs you wish to enter, you just have to pick of them to be your official entry, while the others are listed as a shadows.

If you do submit more than one shadow to a round after you've been eliminated from a previous round, you should indicate which shadow you would have submitted had you been a competitor.

Collaborations are OK. In fact, you're encouraged to collaborate with other competitors. Each band, though, should have a separate email address and a separate contact person.

Wrap Up

I sadly live in the Real World, as do all of you. At times I may be busy with work and other responsibilities. I will enlist the help of judges and a few other trusted members of our community to help out from time to time. Don't be shocked if someone other than myself responds to you via one of the SpinTunes social media outlets.