Country Showdown Songwriting Contest Rules

 COUNTRY SHOWDOWN SONGWRITING CONTEST RULES AND REGULATIONS

REGISTRATION:

1. To register, entrants must sign up for a “Country Showdown Songwriting Contestant“ profile on SoundEmerge, the independent and unsigned artist discovery platform hosted by American Music Channel. Any contest registration fees must be paid at the time of account creation.

2. To enter the Songwriting contest, there is a non-refundable fee of $49.00 for every quarter that you wish to compete. Major credit cards are accepted.

3. Contest entrants are automatically granted Platinum level access to SoundEmerge, and will not be charged the standard monthly access fee for the duration of the contest (3 months). After the contest period expires, registrants will be automatically enrolled in the standard $10/month Platinum plan, which can be easily canceled at any time after the contest.

4. By registering, you grant Country Showdown and American Music Channel the right to utilize your name, likeness, image, voice, appearance, and song worldwide in advertising, trade or other lawful promotional purposes whatsoever, in any and all media now known or thereafter developed, without compensation for a period of two years.

5. Submissions can be uploaded at any time during the competition, and six finalists will be selected, on a rolling basis, for each two week period of the contest.

6. An entrant can opt out at any time by logging on to their account and deleting their contest entry submission. This will remove your submission from the competition.

7. Upload and enter as many submissions as allowed by the Platinum SoundEmerge access rules. The submissions may be YouTube/Vimeo videos or mp3 files not to exceed five minutes. Country Showdown is not responsible for faulty file uploads; please see the contest page and contestant group page(s) for audio/video format and encoding help.

8. Submissions must be the entrant’s original work (co-writers allowed). An entrant who claims ownership may be disqualified if a musical copyright exists in another name. Upon request, entrant must provide acceptable documentation to prove ownership in the form of a certificate of copyright, registration with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC or a notarized copy of the application for the copyright.

9. Songs must not have been performed on a record listed in R&R or Billboard within the past 12 months.

ELIGIBILITY:

1. You must be at least eighteen years of age or have a parent or legal guardian provide consent on your registration form.

2. No lyrics considered offensive may be entered. Country Showdown and American Music Channel have sole authority to disqualify music for any reason.

3. The six bi-weekly winners are automatically entered into the final round of competition held in August 2017.

4. In the event of a tie, Country Showdown will hold a three-day run-off for the song receiving the most votes.

STRUCTURE and VOTING:

The Songwriting competition begins in June for three months. Each bi-weekly contest round begins on alternating Mondays of the contest. Voting by online registered fans begins immediately and runs through the last day of the contest. Finalists will be selected at most one time, with additional votes not counting toward their final round. Votes are cast by users clicking the “Like” button on the entrant’s submission which is publicly available on SoundEmerge. The top five entrants for each biweekly period will be featured on the contest website and will be named as finalists. An additional “wildcard” slot is reserved for judges to promote an entry that is particularly suitable or noteworthy of being a finalist.

After the last bi-weekly round, the group of named finalists will be evaluated by a panel of judges composed of industry songwriters and insiders who will announce the winner before the beginning of the next quarter’s competition. One of the finalists will be granted the title of “Best Written Country Song.”

PRIZES:

Each bi-weekly finalist will receive a free 1-year Diamond-level subscription to SoundEmerge which includes promotion and recognition on The Country Showdown, American Music Channel, and their various online, print, and social media outlets. Their song will be listed under the “Featured Songs” on American Music Channel’s contest portal for the following 2 week period. The Grand Prize winner will receive a check for $1,000 and an award placard. The winner will be also awarded an eighteen month contract with MasterRecs to promote his or her song to music supervisors in every media category and approximately 2,000 music end users who make the decisions as to what music they license for their projects. MasterRecs is a boutique music production and licensing company headed by Emmy Winning composer and songwriter, Ken Barken, and legendary producer, songwriter, Dennis Lambert.

WINNERS:

Winners will be announced and notified at the end of each biweekly period via the contestant group page and via email. Winners will be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility/recording rights/publicity release within 7 days of notification before any prizes are issued. Failure to comply will result in disqualification and an alternate winner will be selected. Affidavits for winners under 18 years of age must be countersigned by parent or legal guardian.

MISCELLANEOUS:

This contest is void where prohibited by law.

Country Showdown and American Music Channel have the sole authority to resolve any disputes that arise during the competition. Their decision is final.

The entrant shall hold Country Showdown, American Music Channel and all competition sponsors harmless from and against any and all claims arising from this contest.