Announcing the 2022/23 Songwriting Contest – Rules and Submission Form

***CONTEST SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED***

It’s true. Even after being driven nearly insane by the last songwriting contest, I realized that I actually had a TON of fun doing it – I must be a masochist. So here we go – I’m doing another songwriting contest.

This time, rather than it being one big prize, it’s going to be something new every month. I’ll be listening to your tracks with the camera running and the gong as the stop button, and I’ll post my reaction videos to your entries once a week. I’ll pick my favorites each week and then at the end of the month I’ll pick a winner – AND the audience will get to pick a fan favorite to get a different prize.

Below are listed all the official rules, which will be slightly different from the first contest – please be sure to read them very carefully before submitting your song, because we all know what happens if you don’t follow the rules.

It will be a rolling entry type of deal, so if you send in an entry and I don’t use it this month, it will be entered in a later month’s contest.

Because of an ongoing scam in the comments sections of YouTube giveaway and contest videos, I have to let you know that I will be contacting winners by email reply to your initial entry email ONLY – if you get a response to a comment on YouTube telling you you’ve won something, DO NOT ENGAGE – don’t respond, don’t do what they say, don’t give them any information, IT IS A SCAM. My mods and I will do our best to monitor them but the bots are very fast.

I’m excited to hear your songs, so fill out the form below to enter your song – and good luck!

Rules:

Disregard all the rules to the previous contest – only these rules matter.

1. The contest is completely free to enter, no purchase necessary.
2. The contest is open to anyone, anywhere – EXCEPT:
   1. Employees, interns, mods, and friends and family of Gear Gods/Trey Xavier
   2. Sponsor brands and their employees
3. Submissions can be ANY style or genre of music. It can have vocals OR be instrumental, but it MUST have a topline – if you don’t know what a topline is, watch this video.
4. It must be a completely original song – no covers (obviously) but also no derivations of other songs, unlicensed samples, etc. 
5. You cannot submit the same song that you sent in for the 200k Songwriting Contest.
6. You cannot submit a song that I have critiqued on my Friday stream or given you feedback on at any point, that isn’t fair to the other entries.
7. Recording quality, production, and performance matter – but only insofar as I need to be able to get the idea. I’m not easily tricked by good production value into liking a subpar song, but if it sounds terrible and you performed it very badly, I might not really be able to experience the song as you intended. A great song will survive a bad performance and bad production, but you want the best presentation of it.
8. You can only send one (1) song per person or band. Send only your best one. DO NOT SEND MORE THAN ONCE – I’ll be going through them in the order they are received, so if you’re not entered this month, you don’t need to send it in again, you’re still entered.
9. Whatever month I get to your song is the month you are entered, and the prize for that month is the one you will receive if you win. You are considered to be entered if your submission appears in a reaction video.
10. Include a LITTLE information about yourself/your band – your name, the song title, the band’s name. I might be reading it out loud in the video so don’t put any info in there you don’t want public. You can include the lyrics to the song as well if you like.
11. There will be 2 winners every month, one first place and one fan favorite. Trey Xavier is the sole judge of the first place winner, except for the fan favorite, who will be chosen by audience vote. Entries are valid or disqualified based solely at his discretion, and his decisions are final. If the first place winner and the fan favorite are the same person, they don’t receive both prizes , instead, the submission with the second highest number of votes will be the fan favorite winner.
12. You need to upload the track to either Soundcloud, Dropbox, or YouTube. No Spotify or other streaming services (Apple Music, Deezer etc). No Google Drive links. Do not attach files directly to the email. The main thing is that I need to be able to click the link you send and listen to the song right away – I don’t care if it’s private or public, just that when I click it, it works. Test it with an incognito browser window before you send it if you’re not sure.
13. It cannot be something that has been published and distributed professionally. If you released it through Distrokid, CDBaby, a record label, or some other kind of distribution and it’s on streaming platforms etc, you can’t submit it. I will know immediately if it is because my video will be demonetized, and then I will edit your song out of the video.
14. It doesn’t have to be a new one that you wrote specifically for the contest – but it can’t be something you’ve already released. If it’s something you’re planning to release soon, keep in mind that I might not get to yours right away, and if you release it onto distribution as listed above before it winds up in a video, it might get you disqualified. Also, why not send something new? The most recent thing you wrote is probably the best thing, right?
15. If you submit a song that was written by more than one person, splitting the prize between you will be the sole responsibility of the sender in the event of being chosen as the winner. 
16. You cannot win more than once. If you submit and do NOT win, you may submit again (a DIFFERENT song) after your song appears in a reaction video.
17. These rules are subject to change at my sole discretion.
18. No whining at my reactions – don’t submit if you don’t want your song to be included in my reaction videos, and remember that they are all in good fun.

Enter using this form, and this form only:

***CONTEST SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED***