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Music contest from Song Silo invites musicians and music lovers
Requesting user-generated content to be submitted in contests is an extremely popular way for brands and companies to engage with consumers. Social media enables them to help spread the word, gain new followers, and hopefully customers, while at the same time creating buzz for their business. By inviting people to upload a photo, a video, a recipe, a design, or a written essay they also can gain great insights into how consumers use and/or feel about their product and services. This new contest from Song Silo invites people to create and share music on their new platform.
SongSilo.com is a social collaboration website that launched late last year with the objective of becoming a universal community of artists, bands, writers, musicians and music lovers. It is the brainchild of three brothers, Michael, David, and Bernard Edwards, Jr, who have a passion for music which they inherited from their father, disco icon Bernard Edwards. SongSilo came to us for assistance in launching their first contest with an objective to drive people to the site to create, collaborate and listen to music.
On March 1 they launched the SongSilo Original Works Contest. They decided to open up their first contest to all U.S. and Canadian residents and are allowing anyone 13 years or older to participate. Submissions must include a track which is original material, the work of the person who entered and at least two and a half minutes long. Participants have to visit the Contest Profile on the site to publish their track. They can publish as many tracks as they wish during the Submission period which is open till March 31.
A panel of judges will review all submissions and select the top five Finalists based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity, 25%, Quality of Submission 25%, Uniqueness & Style 35% Use of collaboration 15%. These five Finalists will then have their tracks displayed in the Contest Gallery on the SongSilo website. Starting on April 5 the public will be invited to vote on their favorite. Only one vote per person per track will be allowed during the voting phase which will end on April 26.
So instead of leaving the determination of the winners totally up to public vote, the judging phase helps to prevent a submission from becoming a winner that really does not meet the high standards of what SongSilo is all about.
“We wanted to give everybody who wants to be involved in music, an opportunity to create and enjoy the artistry of song,” said Michael Edwards. “Not everyone has the tools it takes to create or compose — whether that is a specific skill or piece of equipment. Song Silo changes all that.”
The Finalist with the highest number of votes will be determined as the Grand Prize winner who will receive a $1,000 cash prize plus a SongSilo premium account for a year. Also one First Prize winner will receive $250 along with a SongSilo premium account as well.
The Edward brothers are hoping to carry on the family tradition of making music fun. Their father, Bernard Edwards, along with Nile Rogers, was a founding member of Chic. Together they created such hits as ‘Dance, Dance, Dance,’ ‘Everybody Dance,’ ‘I Want Your Love,’ and ‘Le Freak’. The brothers are hoping to leave their own mark through the creation of SongSilo. Already the contest has gotten some good, quality submissions. Check it out here, sign-up for free, take a listen and if you’re a musician, get your track created and submitted soon.