[twistandshout]

Hey Guys,
I couldn't find a better place for this topic, so maybe a moderator can put it in a more appropriate section. What does anybody know about this BMG The Songwriters contest? (www.thesongwriters.biz) It's a 30 city tour in 8 states w/a showcase in each town sponsored by a local music store. After the showcase, you post a video of your song to YouTube & get folks to vote for you. Then 10 finalists are asked to something called Texas Songfest this summer. The winners of the showcases get a Takamine G330S & the grand prize winner in the end gets a publishing contract w/BMG. And somewhere along the road, it turns into a reality show. From reviewing your site, I take it these contests are pretty much a wash which is what I already suspected. My local music store thinks it's legit, but I get the feeling they didn't check it out too extensively before jumping on the "great publicity for your store" bandwagon. Brad Davis is the host/lead judge for these showcases & he seems real w/studio recording & touring guitarist for Marty Stuart/Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters as well as inventing a flatpicking technique called double-down picking to his credit. But I think I've uncovered something that doesn't pass the smell test. Turns out BMG is not the Sony/BMG publishing we're all familiar with, but something called Blanchard Music Group out of Commerce, Tx. And get this. Brad Davis is from where? You guessed it. The same Commerce, Tx. So you can see where I'm going here. Lure in unsuspecting songwriters at an early developmental stage & get them to sign on the dotted line to a deal highly advantageous to this other BMG. Any feedback or knowledge of this contest would be greatly appreciated. At the very least, my research led me to this community of songwriters & what appears to be a good resource for writing tools. And that's a big positive. As this is my 1st post, please be gentle. Thanks in advance.

[Len]

Hi TAS, sorry that I can't shed any light on this contest but using the BMG initials is a low (but probably effective) trick.

Any contest that relies on Youtube votes or Facebook "likes" is not a song contest, it's a popularity/marketing contest. Voting or Liking means nothing to me and I never do it if asked.

There are some decent song contests out there more worthy of attention and effort.

And finally welcome to the Muse

[twistandshout]

Len, on 13 February 2012 - 02:27 PM, said:

Hi TAS, sorry that I can't shed any light on this contest but using the BMG initials is a low (but probably effective) trick.

Any contest that relies on Youtube votes or Facebook "likes" is not a song contest, it's a popularity/marketing contest. Voting or Liking means nothing to me and I never do it if asked.

There are some decent song contests out there more worthy of attention and effort.

And finally welcome to the Muse

Thanks, Len. From what I gather, you're to encourage friends, colleagues & relatives to vote for you since the public at large would not even be aware of the contest unless there were links from other high traffic sites. But I agree with your basic premise. And I shudder at the thought of a reality show on any level.

[Roger]

Scam

[FunkDaddy]

I googled the contest before I read your entire post and see that you already did your homework on the stuff I was going to say. It's not a publishing contract with Sony-BMG, it's a management contract with BMG management which has nothing to do with Sony-BMG.

It all feels pretty scammy to me.

[twistandshout]

Thanks for the input, Mark. They're not revealing the pertinent details of their management contract, but it sounds like they would want a chunk of change off the top of anything I might possibly make in addition to the standard 50/50 publishing deal. Or there might not be any publishing deal in the works which would be kinda strange. They really don't specify. Anyway, I've established this is taking place in Tx, Ok, Al, Ms, Ar, Tn, La, & Nm so people in those states can be aware.

[AudioProUK]

I would say its definitely some sort of scam . I did google it and to me it all sounds very fishy