In terms of credibility, we have a strong team of industry professionals who act as our music judges. We have included the profiles of each of them on our Judges page:

http://www.wearelistening.org/judges.php

In terms of diversity and judging criteria, we run a genre-free song contest. In other words, all of the songs are evaluated equally, irrespective of the musical style. The judges are also required to consider the ‘delivery’ or performance of the piece as well as the composition when making their selections.

As for an innovative approach, we do not award cash prizes because we want to ensure that the budget we have for each winner is spent where it is needed most. We will support artists by producing their songs, duplicating their records, launching their websites etc., depending on their individual needs. As such, we are not dependent on sponsors to provide us with prizes – we pay for it ourselves and do so by charging the entry fee.

We are a small organisation and aim to keep it this way. We do not have a lyrics-only category, foreign language or instrumental submissions because we do not have a powerful entry point into these respective markets. We expect significantly less entries than other contests for this reason and rely on our ability to access the ‘commercial’ music market to advance these winners’ careers – this is the ultimate prize. Keeping the numbers low also ensures that we have time to listen to everyone properly and periodically, and present our catalogue to our contingents. As for longevity, time will tell…

I believe that all the contests that you mentioned are based in the US or Canada. We are a UK music group and, before we formed the song contest, worked hard at bridging the gap between the US and Europe. This is very difficult due to the differentiating licensing laws of all the territories, especially in continental Europe and, of course, the logistical cost and risk of flying new talent across the Atlantic where they are unknown and perform to an unfamiliar music listening/buying audience… only to send them back again. Simply put, we felt that new, independent artists are being catered for through all kinds of schemes, especially online, and saw a niche for a project of discovery and promotion for artists who wish to tour, promote and sell records away from home. The song contest is a self-financing method of bringing a handful of artists to a new music market each year. Where it is not, we seek an alternative and have yet to make a profit from it.

Brian, you are a harsh critic and I beg of you to find the good in what we do as well as the bad. The word “premiere” is just part of a tag and reflects what we believe. It’s not a claim but rather an opinion. Honestly, we believe that we are in the top 10 at what we do (in spite of the number of entries we receive and the money we make) and thought a French word that means ‘first’ and widely used in British English (not pronounced pre-meer) would depict our European roots.

Lior

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