There Is No Prize...

[Pigfarmer Jr]

...according to the front page. This is a stupid idea and probably more work than it's worth, but what if we had all the winners from the year on a free bandcamp release and the prize was to be on the album? Obviously, getting permission etc., would be necessary and probably a nightmare. So this idea probably sucks. But, as a thought experiment, does anyone have thoughts?

[fluffy]

If you just want to buy a Berkeley Social Scene album you can already do that

More seriously, no, I don't like that idea, because that raises the stakes for people in such a way that the problems we already have with attempted cheating will get a lot worse, and also there are so many songs that people make that don't win but which shouldn't be excluded. And then that gets into super subjective territory.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

If you just want to buy a Berkeley Social Scene album you can already do that

Muahaha

[ken]

Please do buy a BSS album.

That being said, I don't think there is anything preventing an individual from inviting all the year's winners to appear on a bandcamp album, or to create some kind of side fight for winners (or anyone) where the prize is to be on a bandcamp compilation.

[fluffy]

Oh, sure, anyone is free to invite anyone to participate in a compilation. I'm just saying that I wouldn't want this to be a thing that's an official part of Song Fight! itself.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I don't think there is anything preventing an individual from inviting all the year's winners to appear on a bandcamp album

The thought crossed my mind. There are 34 winners so far, 35 presumably when the current fight is posted. But if you limit each band to one song per year that reduces the number to a manageable low 20's. (BSS would have to pick one of eight entries, add one of three entries etc.,) Plus a few people won't respond or grant permission. There could easily be between 12-20 songs which would be more than enough for a compilation that could represent SF for the year. There's still the problem of permissions and sales, although spintunes and other compilations handle them easily enough. It could be offered as FREE or free, pay what you want with all proceeds going to the cost of maintaining the site. So the problem would be having the fightmaster be at least partially, or wholly, in charge of the bandcamp page or trusting one of us to send the money, which will likely be very little, to be fair.

The alternative is to, hopefully, get all of the winners to agree and do a super long set or do vol i and vol ii. I wonder what interest the winners would have. Might not be worth the trouble. I have a feeling that getting a response from folks might be the most difficult part.

[ujnhunter]

Not that I'd be on the album (I don't think we've won/submitted this year?), but if I were to "listen" to the Bandcamp Album, I would prefer the 1 song per band/winner approach myself.

[BoffoYux]

I like the idea but I get the issues involved. I ended up doing 2 SpinTunes compilations as giveaways at the JoCo Cruises as freebies at the panel discussions. The first one was too large so I did an audio data DVD. They also made them available on bandcamp but didn’t charge for them.

It took a few months to contact the 60+ artists and ask for permission to add them to the disc.Everyone thought it was cool to be added and I also snuck in a folder with every version of ‘Today’s the Day’ on it since it had the space.

Years ago someone approached the group to have a small cash prize for the winners. After a lot of thought, the answer was no. It would change the whole dynamics of the competition and also take it to a level where the judges would have issues with any reviewing that was outside the norm.

I think the only prize was a T-shirt for a few years. I’m not sure if that’s the case now. In the early years I had a friend create a few gold records with the band info on them but it’s not an option at the moment.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I briefly thought about trying to do some sort of winners compilation but, while I think it'd be cool, I don't want to risk altering the perception of songfight. I think a better idea would be to offer to distribute a compilation album of anyone who wanted to submit a song. Pick your best (or favorite) songfight entry, one song per *person and per band, and then put it on bandcamp and distribution. It would be related to songfight but more inclusive.

*For instance, I have entered under (more than five and less than ten) bandnames and I would have to pick one. If Amanda were interested then only one of us could pick an Evil Grin song.