JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Songoftheyear.com Scam Back Again

Hey All,

Beware, our scammy "friends" ( not ! ) at songoftheyear.com are back and at it again.

Perhaps someone could resurrect the old JPF thread concerning these shysters

Be warned ! and please don't waste your time, money or effort on a known rip off.

cheers, niteshift

Have a heart Nite. Even shysters need to make a living. Donate today to your friendly shysters. Maybe there should be a National Shyster's Day"?


John

Here is what i wrote about it in another thread about songwriting contests:

...Well I never trusted songwriting contests, mostly because to most people, recording and production, is what makes a song great. Yet they always say that it doesn't factor into the decision, which is laughable. I'm a singer songwriter, I'm not a record producer.

This site says the same thing. Production doesn't matter...yeah right
http://www.songoftheyear.com

What makes me even more suspicious, the email this contest sends out shows pictures of "famous judges". Dave Grohl, The Edge, Lenny Kravitz, and Steven Tyler.... But on the website itself, you see no mention of these famous people.

The tip of the iceberg..... They send an email every two weeks telling me that the deadline has been extended, in fact, this contest seems to always be open

They only say production doesn't matter because they want people without talent to send money to them. We have plenty of categories with guitar vocal or piano vocal or other single instrument vocal or for that matter just single instruments or vocal only. But we don't take money, and if you can't sing a lick and can't be bothered to find someone who can stay in key, don't enter a contest because you obviously don't care about anyone liking your music.

Brian

Speaking as some one who has judged a LOT of contests, while we try NOT to let production influence the decision on song, when you listen to a LOT of songs, they all start running together. So the ones with better production will stand out more. But there is a bit of a trait you notice over and over on them. On the unproduced, work tape or guitar/piano vocal songs, you find them NOT as well written songs. The people who have the craft down and are serious about what they do, usually will have the more produced songs to compliment what they do. So you find those songs actually better written.

I've judged a lot of contests and can't remember a guitar/vocal song ever impressing me enough to pass it forward. They are usually not well written and not well represented,
Personally, if I was entering contests, and I have been in a few and won a few, I would never enter something that wasn't fully produced and well represented. Even if the prize was a professional demo. If I did that and won ,I would use the demo prize for another song.
But since most contests disqualify you if you have ever had a major cut or publishing deal, it probably doesn't matter either way. Just my opinion.

MAB

Eh, Well,
I received an E-Mail a couple of weeks ago from a uh, well known scammer, who will remain nameless, that they were always looking for songs. So I politely replied giving them the Web Site where they could listen to some of my songs that were available
for recording, release and possibly Publishing. Well they went and listened and selected one of my songs they liked and wanted to include it on a CD to send out to prospective contacts. They only wanted $500.00 to include my song on the CD. They were really nice about it. Well you would be to if you were selling a "Great" service of which you would probably receive nothing in return.I informed them my former Publisher said it was illegal to charge someone for publishing, of which it is.
They said they were not offering publishing just a chance to be on a CD to send out to contacts. I passed. I can promote my songs my self by giving people the Web Site.

Well my feeling is, and some may disagree, but that turds are polished all the time. There used to be a sentiment that you could not polish a turd, or lipstick on a pig etc....

Pretty much non sense. If you sound better, you are better.

Remember in the end, you're attempting to entertain somebody, you're not trying to demonstrate craft or writing skills.

You're entering a product, not a song. Songs are abstract, recordings of songs and performances of songs is what sells it.

So, if trying to win a songwriting contest, you will not be judged on the song.

Keith Richards said if it wasn't for the fuzz box he used on satisfaction, the song would have been a flop. Sound is huge.

The only way to really judge the SONG, is if everybody is limited to guitar vocal, or piano vocal, and nothing else

Some songs are all melody and lyric, some songs are all track, some are combos.

Anyway, you won't win this contest or other public contest without, not just a solid recording, but a great recording, and not just the recording, but the production and arrangement and performances.

I'm going to start a songwriting contest. $50 to enter. First prize is publicity for your song in the form of the title painted on the side of the yacht whose purchase you will be financing. It will be prominently displayed at various key locations in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, where it is entirely possible that it will be spotted by publishers relaxing on their own yachts, leading to a major publishing deal.

No need to send the whole song. I'll be able to tell how great it is from the title.

Hey Gavin, spot on !

The deal with songoftheyear.com SCAM SCAM SCAM is that the whole site is totally bogus ! Down to the "judges" whose pictures they have spliced from the internet.

Add to that, the "winners" , whose songs are up, are without any contact information or verification.

I'm sure it is a take on ASCAP's song of the year, which is real. I tracked down their bogus ISP in Texas once, but it's probably well moved to a Caribbean Island by now.

If anyone finds these sods, whip them hard with every internet hack tool you have.

Notice there is no defence, which is what a legit person would do ? I wonder why ?

uncheers, niteshift

Info for computer geeks...

Domain Name: SONGOFTHEYEAR.COM
Registry Domain ID: 103285041_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2015-04-15T10:07:07Z
Creation Date: 2003-09-09T03:49:22Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2019-09-09T03:49:22Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 480-624-2505
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Name Server: NS43.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS44.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2018-08-05T09:14:45Z <<<

Hmm, a godaddy.com reg. Anyone know how to put in an official complaint for fraud ?

cheers, niteshift

It's like going to a job interview in sweats and a stained T-Shirt. If you are serious about your music enough to enter a "contest" and pay money, your only chance is to be professional. Frankly there is not a single contest worth paying to enter in my opinion. Because even if you win, it means NOTHING. Sure, maybe you'll be the lottery winner that year, but for every winner, there is everyone else who are making the "contest" rich off of their futile effort. If an award is real, they don't ask you to PAY for it. I am not talking about buying a ticket to an awards show, they must cover the cost which can be huge if they put on a nice show, serve food/drinks etc. But paying to enter in hopes the people you paid will give you a nod for it is hollow. We ran our awards first just because we got all these CD's handed to us around the States and Countries we visited, so I thought, hey, some of this stuff is really good, let's bring some positive attention to it. The numbers were manageable so we did it for free, we had a free awards show the first year (like ALL our events) and everyone was a winner. We had one sponsor that paid for the Trophies (they cost us 6K+ each year) and on we went. As it grew to unimaginable numbers (42 times larger than the Grammy's last time around) we got a long list of corporate sponsors to pay the cost of the process and trophies and charged tickets to the show which was phenomenal which anyone who has been to one will tell you. We didn't gouge people like the Grammy's do ($600+ for a ticket? WHY? Only because they CAN). The rich people, ironically, get free tickets or get paid to attend, if not directly by the Grammy's then by sponsors and networks etc. (according to sources). The rank and file nominees (including many JPF members) pay full boat. They also pay to join their org. They also vote even though they don't have to listen to the music before doing so. So they do ALL the heavy lifting. We allow nominees to vote if they want to pitch in on other genres, but everyone must listen to the music for their vote to count (we monitor that sort of thing to catch cheaters or lazy judges). So our awards are on merit.

And what do these contests do? Well, some of the biggest name contests pay others to do the judging. They don't do it in house. It is outsourced. (No, I am not naming names or outing the people they hire. You can trust me or not). I happen to know most of the people they hire, and it's just another mundane chore they don't much care about. Sure, they try to pick stuff they like, but usually it is one person's opinion that decides it. Not really fair. Often the category winners are "adjusted" when the winners are announced (yup.. the people who screened it are overridden for no apparent reason) so some have speculated if it isn't all fixed. But once they have category winners, the grand prize is chosen within the company and so big cash paydays can go to whoever they feel like based on whatever criteria they want. Do you really trust that? At least you have something to think about before you enter a paid contest. When something is free, there is no agenda to fix a category or take a shortcut. In our case, the weakness of what we do is it takes a whole lot of time to ACTUALLY listen to the music, across many people (thousands in our case) and it takes us YEARS just to get it down to nominations and then like this year, it can be more than a year to hit the number of volunteer (versus paid) judges. So instead of doing it yearly (which would be impossible without more than 10-20K voters to be fair) we used to do it every 2 to 3 years. This process got fully underway in 2016 and here we are in 2019 still not finished. But we won't announce winners until all 70 album and 62 song genres are finished. A paid operation just pushes it all through on a mandatory schedule using paid judges usually outsourced (unless it is a tiny contest) and often the winners are chosen (or at least significantly narrowed down to nominations) by one person in a cubicle somewhere. Are there exceptions? Maybe. I am just unaware of who they are. Part of me hoped our free awards would put a dent into their operations and force them to get better at how they do things. But when you gotta make payroll, you minimize cost and maximize profits. So does any of this ring untrue?

You can't buy success. And you can't pay for legitimate praise. It is a lesson that most contests hope you never learn. Just like the lottery.

Every where you look these days there is someone out there trying to RIP US ALL OFF

In the U K there are numerous companies selling DOUBLE GLAZING-SHARKS and Building Contractors

most who would have a difficulty bedding a single brick let alone building a whole house

or extension , and mainly Politicians who have not ever had a proper job -- getting employment

through who they know not what they know and help from the Old School Tie Brigade;


I'TS A RIP OFF WORLD GETTING WORSE EVERYDAY

The sad thing about it is most of us can smell a scam, where as many people seem

to fall for all these false promises and lies. time and time again

You're right Cheyenne. If spammers didn't make money from Viag*a ads they wouldn't spend the bandwidth to spam people with it. They are making more money than the cost of sending those emails.

In truth though, what people just think is run of the mill spam is really a veiled attempt to defeat Googles algorithms Things are never what they seem in this world. If someone is blaming an entity for something, it is never the person, place or thing they point to, it is often the exact opposite that is responsible or at least not the entire story at all.

Google is compliant as they invoke censorship protecting a specific group over and above all others. When that happens you have to wonder if perhaps they aren't the ones behind all the bad stuff. And it isn't likely who you think it is.

the USA international songwriting contests, one year, a songwriting team, two writers, both who have gotten major cuts, hits songs, billboard, the works, won the contest, it was first or second place, I forget. But one of the guys i know.

I thought if guys like that are allowed in the competition, why even submit?

Years ago, I think it was 2003, before they cloaked their domain, i did a "who is" search on it, and the contact info was a Las Vegas p.o. box.

That ought to tell you something right there. Anyway, I entered it three times, and firt time I got 'honorable mention", the next time I got 'runner up' and the third time I won a higher award than that. turns out, EVERYONE wins something, this is not a contest. I had a friend enter with the most terrible song we could come up with, and he got a "runner up' with it. This is, indeed, a scam

they only give big bucks to the winner, who is never a real person, so they don't pay out anything.

We let anyone enter the JPF Awards but every time we have Grammy winners who don't even get nominated (some don't get out of the first of 6 rounds) and people who don't even have a commercial album released for sale get nominated and one year a song a girl recorded in a bathroom with a single mic won the biggest genre category over lots of well established artists. Best stuff that moves the judges wins. If money is at stake why wouldn't people good at what they do try to win it? BUT.. if a company simply hands out money to "established" artists who are in on it with the contest (i.e. lending their name so it legitimizes things in exchange for prize money for example) then that is fraud and I believe there are MANY "contests" which are fraudulent on many levels or completely on all levels.

I know a company that does ALL the judging for a ton of small to large contests. They get paid but do they really care (does anyone involved for that matter) who wins? No. They "judge" get paid move on to the next thing. If judges aren't truly picking what they love, then it's fraudulent in my view. That is why we don't pay judges and we don't charge to enter. Anyone can, and anyone can win and they do, from famous people to unknown newbies who hit a home run out of the box. Our judges do a lot of heavy lifting too... to judge a single genre in the finals, it takes over 10 hours just for a single album category of 70 we had last time. Song genres took at least 90 minutes. We require people listen to a certain % of EVERY song for their votes to count. That way if someone slips in that is connected to a nominee, for example, they have to spend a LOT of time just to get a single vote. Other BIG awards with all the famous people don't even require anyone to listen to ANYTHING to vote. As long you pay a membership fee, vote any way you want. If a label wants to win, you sign up ALL your employees as members to vote who you want by giving them ballot lists. And you trade key genres/categories with OTHER labels so they vote for your important artist and vice versa, even if that means screwing over your own artists in one category so another more important artist wins their category instead. It happens. For a FACT.

That's just some of many ways contests or awards can be corrupted. Usually it is simply about making maximum money. They could care less who wins. They could care less about fairness. They could care less about good music.

Brian

Just out of interest, Brian, how do people enter the JPF awards?

Gavin,

It's always been free. In all past cycles, which happen usually a year or so after a given awards show which is why they happen every few years or so, we just announce we're accepting CD's and give an address and instructions (what info to provide etc.)

BUT.. because of my health crises in the past 2 years, the 2017-2020 cycle STILL hasn't been announced even though it was finished last summer. I plan to post the winners online as this CV pretty much has killed any chance of an in person awards show which we've been trying to schedule since last summer. First I was hanging on to life from Sept-Dec in the hospital then this CV. We've never NOT had an awards show which was how we'd hoped to pay some of the expenses like trophies (which cost over 6K) etc. since we do it all for free.

If things settle down, we would likely do it differently. CD's are dead. So most likely we'd simply use a digital service to judge so people would need to get their stuff on Spotify or the like. It would make things so much easier that way anyway. I also have to stay alive of course to oversee it again!

Brian