It is time, once again, for my favorite songwriting competition: SpinTunes. SpinTunes was created when a group of geeky and non-geeky musicians were looking for a way to challenge and collaborate with each other through friendly competition.
If you are unfamiliar with SpinTunes, it is a supportive songwriting competition, consisting of four rounds, that can best be described as a mix between Nur Ein and Song Fu. Every couple of weeks, contestants are issued a songwriting challenge. This challenge can be topical, technical, or a combination of both. After a round is over, a group of judges rank and review each song. There is also a popular vote that carries some weight in the final score. After each round, a number of contestant are eliminated, scores cleared and a fresh round begins. The winner is voted upon by the eliminated contestants. Full rules can be found here.
After each round, there is a Ustream listening party. This allows all of the musicians and their supporters to get together, listen to the songs, and give each other feedback. All of the music is then made available, for free, via BandCamp.
Whether you are a seasoned musician, or a musician who is still learning, young or old, this friendly contest is for you. The community surrounding it is very supportive, oftentimes willing to lend a hand and help you with your songs.
Sign-ups will last until June 18th 11:59PM EDT. Sign-up information can be found here.
The first challenge will be posted June 20th 1AM EDT (W). You can view the tentative schedule here.
If you are curious to hear about some of the experiences of past contestants, you can listen to/download my Geeky Pleasures Radio Show interview with four former contestants and judges here. You can also read about GeekMom Rebecca Angel‘s SpinTunes 4 — where she made it to round three — experiences here.
I do hope some of the GeekMom readers will decide to join this great competition. As I have since SpinTunes 1 when I was a judge, I will be following it closely and am extremely excited to hear what comes out of SpinTunes 5.
