The Song Fight Bulletin Board

https://spintunescontest.blogspot.com/2 ... lenge.html

Welcome to SpinTunes 17. I'm excited to begin a new competition with you all. There are a lot of you this year - new faces and old faces alike - so let's get to know each other, shall we? Here's your first challenge:

Pleasure To Meet You: Introduce yourself with a song. You may present yourself truthfully, embellish your image, or adopt an entirely fictitious persona.

Examples include:

• “Luka” by Suzanne Vega

• “The Mesopotamians” by They Might Be Giants

• “My Name Is Prince” by Prince

• “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by the Beatles

• “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A.

• “(Theme from) The Monkees” by the Monkees

• “Thomas O’Malley Cat” from Disney’s The Aristocats

• “Wayfaring Stranger” - American folk song

• “Welcome to Tally Hall” by Tally Hall

If you include an image to be used as cover art for your track, I'll include it on the Bandcamp album. Otherwise, I'll use the artist photo or logo you sent me when you signed up. Bandcamp album art must be 1400x1400 pixels or larger. I'll crop and re-size it as best I can. If you didn't send me anything, the album art will be displayed.

Also, please remember that the fantastic folks at SongFight have opened a SpinTunes subforum on their message boards. So go there, sign up, and take a look around. SongFight happens year 'round. Music is universal... the more the better.

Submitting Entries:
Your entry must be received by Sunday, March 14th, 2020 @ 11:59 PM EDT. Otherwise it'll be posted as a shadow. Received means that it has to appear in my e-mail inbox (spintunescontest@gmail.com) by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail. One minute late is too late.
You are allowed and encouraged to submit a 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. The last version received prior to the deadline is your official entry.
Lyrics are mandatory. No instrumentals. Having no lyrics will get you disqualified.
Name your file the your band name + the song's title, but without spaces & punctuation.
Subject of the e-mail should be the title of the Challenge & your band's name. (e.g. "Pleasure To Meet You - All the Robots") (The title of your song is whatever you want it to be)
Include information on anyone that should be credited for collaboration. Remember, collaborations are OK, even among competitors. You must write your song, but if you want to use another vocalist or musicians, do so. Use the Facebook and SongFight forums!
If you have a BandCamp account, you can just send me a link to your song on BandCamp if you include all the info I mentioned above. Make sure you have it set as a free download. THIS IS THE BEST FILE SHARING OPTION!
Other file sharing options if you need them: Sound Cloud (set to download a format BandCamp is ok with) & Drop Box. Please send an e-mail as I already stated, but with the download link if you need one of these services.
If you're using something other than Bandcamp, It's best if you send your file in a format that Bandcamp accepts (.aiff, .wav or .flac, at least 16-bit/44.1kHz) You can find the specific requirements for Bandcamp files HERE.
If you send me an MP3, I will attempt to convert it for you. But be warned... I will be strapped for time, and I will post whatever Audacity spits out of the conversion. So if you picked the wrong sample rate, your dulcet tones may wind up sounding like termites or chipmunks or random static. And that is what will be judged. So please... save and submit your files in the right format.

Side Notes:
You are allowed to send in a little background about your song. We encourage and appreciate "song bios". You don't have to do it, but if you want to write a couple sentences about your song I'll post it on the BandCamp page for people to see. I'll even link to longer blog posts if you want to explain your song on your blog. Some judges will read this extra info, but they aren't required to.
You can send in an entry to SpinTunes 17 without competing. Just tell me it's a "Shadow Song". It will be played at the listening party, but won't be ranked and you might not receive feedback from the judges. Check the FAQ if you don't know what that means. You can even complete past challenges from previous contests. It's a nice way of playing along if you can't commit to the schedule or you just want to get your feet wet.
The only other way to get your music played at the LP is to cover "Today's The Day" by Inverse T. Clown.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments.

So how strict with the title must we be? Am I assuming that announcing our identity and saying something about ourselves is about the extent of it?

And does the opening shout of Kid Rock's Bawitdaba make that count as an example?

The song has to be true to the assigned topic, but the title can be anything you want it to be. In my experience (as a SpinTunes competitor, then a judge, then a competitor) the judges tend to penalize attempts to subvert the assignment regardless of how cute or clever that attempt is. If the first line of the song is “Hi, I’m Phlebia” but the rest of the song is about Among Us, then you’re putting yourself at high risk for elimination or maybe even disqualification. If the entire song is about you (or an alter-ego) but you’ve entitled the song “Mushroom Hunter”, then I bet the judges would be perfectly fine with that.

And of course you are being rated against the other competitors, so if you don’t complete the assignment as well as the others then the judges will probably use that as a good reason to put you lower on their list. When I was a judge it was not unusual to have so many great entries that we would eagerly grasp at any excuse to rate any song higher or lower than the others.

Point taken! For what it's worth, I do have an idea that is true to the actual prompt - brainstorming day was productive! So no worries on that one. Just getting a feel for a format shift! (Also I impulsively entered as a pseudonym so "hi I'm phlebia" is out anyway...)

Do we do lyric submissions for SpinTunes?

gizo wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 2:28 pm

Do we do lyric submissions for SpinTunes?

I just checked over the rules. Looks like lyrics go in the body of your submission email.

jkelver wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 4:43 pm

gizo wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 2:28 pm

Do we do lyric submissions for SpinTunes?

I just checked over the rules. Looks like lyrics go in the body of your submission email.

wow - reading the rules - that was smart. I wish I'd thought of that.

Thanks (:

Posting lyrics in the body of the email is great; if you send a link to BandCamp or SoundCloud you can also put the lyrics there.

I can't believe we used 68 tracks.

Toshiro wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 13, 2021 12:25 pm

I can't believe we used 68 tracks.

You're gonna need to add one more track.

crumpart wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:29 pm

Toshiro wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 13, 2021 12:25 pm

I can't believe we used 68 tracks.

You're gonna need to add one more track.

Noice.

Submitted yesterday. First time doing vocals from the newly-treated closet booth. Controlling pro tools wirelessly via tablet feels like some star trek shit.

Just sent mine in. Was really struggling for energy and motivation this week, but coffee came to the rescue. I think my song came out really well!

Looking forward to hearing the massive number of other songs! Good luck to the judges.

vowlvom wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:08 am

Just sent mine in. Was really struggling for energy and motivation this week, but coffee came to the rescue. I think my song came out really well!

I had a very similar experience: a strange lack of motivation, followed by what I thought was a pretty good result.

rackwagon has submitted.

Massive props to Toshiro for pretty much everything. Ever.

I have entered as... not me.

Night Sky is in by the skin of our teeth. Looking forward to hearing all of the songs.

Can’t wait to hear them! At first I really wasn’t sure about the prompt, (does anyone like describing themselves directly?) but then I found my angle. Going to be fascinating to listen to them all and hear where others went with it (will be later Tuesday for me, as the listening party is the middle of the night for the UK). An unenviable task for the judges with so many, but exciting to be present for such a busy one!

Jerkatorium wrote:

The song has to be true to the assigned topic, but the title can be anything you want it to be. In my experience......

This in no way indicates whether or not there will be Two Jerks One Vote podcasts. I've had to listen to Table Top Genesis and Track Listing, come on, TJOV!!!!

Our contestants have spent a week crafting the perfect introductory songs, and now the Round 1 deadline has passed.

35 registered contestants submitted songs by the deadline. Of these, 24 will move on to Round 2 based on the judges' rankings.

If you didn't make it in by the deadline, you are welcome to submit shadow entries throughout the contest. They will be played at the Listening Parties but will not be eligible for reinstatement.

What's that about Listening Parties? Oh yes, our esteemed Tommy G hosts the listening party live on YouTube every round. Drop in, join the chat, and hear the premiere of your and your fellow contestants' songs tonight at 9 pm EDT!

https://youtu.be/R5nbeZIPY0c