Hello everybody! It's Laurels!
Fenris may have won the last songtest, but they have graciously stepped down in order to allow me to host this next iteration. This is a role I am most pleased to accept, so let's get to it.
First, the normal rules:
- [+] As a reminder
- - submit your song via PM or discord, whichever's easier for you
- songs will be randomly divided into 2 or 3 semifinals depending on turnout. if you're going to be away at some point in the next couple of weeks, let me know and I can try to put your song in a round when you'll be here.
- listen to every song and give points to your top 10 favorites: 12 to your favorite, 10 to your second, 8 to your third, 7 to your fourth, and so on down to 1 point for your tenth favorite.
- if your song is in a given round, you must vote that round or you'll be eliminated. if your song isn't in that round (or you aren't in the contest at all), your vote will be counted as a public vote, which counts for half points.
- the top [x] songs will move on to the final. that number depends on the number of contestants.
- repeat the process for the finals and we get a winner.
- winner gets to hold the next contest, or they can pass the job along to 2nd place if they don't want to. 2nd place can pass down to third, etc, until someone wants to host.
general song rules:
- no eurovision songs
- no reality show/competition covers
- no songs already submitted in a songtest
- there is no penalty for length in this contest. however, if a song goes over 7 minutes, listeners aren't obligated to listen to more than the first 7 minutes of the song. so choose a long song at your own risk!
each semifinal and the final will last for three days. some rules about activity/extensions:
- if you know at the start of your semifinal that you wont be available to vote for those three days, let me know asap and I can move you to another semi, if we aren't on the final one already.
- I'll be posting every 24 hours in this topic as a reminder, as well as pinging everyone who hasn't voted on discord 24 hours before the round ends.
- extensions will only be granted in extenuating circumstances. forgetting to vote until an hour before deadline is not an extenuating circumstance.
Now, for the theme of this contest. In case you haven't noticed, this is the 43rd SOTF Song Contest. We've been doing these contests since October 2017, so I think we're due for a bit of a soft reboot.
Members of SOTF, I am pleased to give you:
THE FRESH MEAT TEST
For this contest, you are free to submit songs of any genre, style, era, etc. However, there is one major catch for this contest:
At no point has the artist/singer/band of the song you are submitting appeared in a past contest.
Sorry folks. No Bowie, no Lorde, no Beatles, NADA. For this contest, your submission must come from a musical act that has never before appeared in any contest in any way, shape, or form. This is your chance to give exposure to your favorite acts that you've never found a theme to use. This is to introduce the listener to something new. This is for foreign acts, obscure acts, acts from genres you do not see represented in these contests. Really think about who you've never seen in one of these contests and consider sending them in.
Some additional clarification on the submissions:
- [+] More rules
-
- What counts as a "previously submitted" act is simple: any artist/act that has had at least one song submitted in the past is forbidden from entry.
- If a song is a musician and a featured artist, featured artists count as previously submitted. This means if a past submission was something like "Aesop Rock feat. John Darnielle", then neither Aesop Rock nor John Darnielle can be submitted. It doesn't matter if there has been no John Darnielle song submitted before, their work is forbidden because they are tied to the Aesop Rock submission from the past.
- Band submissions count for all members of the band at the time the song previously submitted was released. If any act went solo after, then the solo act's songs are forbidden from submission. For example, because The Beatles has been submitted in the past, you can't submit any of John, Paul, George, or Ringo's solo work, even if none of their solo work has been submitted in the past. However, if only a solo act previously associated with a band has been submitted but not the band itself, then the band can be submitted because the band and the solo act would be considered different acts. Ex. If a Phil Collins song appeared in the past, but not a song by Genesis, then Genesis can be submitted. At the same time, if a band has rotating members, then songs are excluded as long as the previously submitted songs were released with the same band name. Ex. Fleetwood Mac has had numerous members, so any song released by "Fleetwood Mac" or its individual members would be forbidden.
- In the case where a song came from a soundtrack or compilation album, I am going to be a bit more lenient. If a song was previously submitted by the name of the soundtrack or musical, I will be looking at the artists. This means that individual composers for soundtracks can be excluded, but any insert songs by other artists would count (ex. For a fictional SOTF video game soundtrack, if an instrumental by composer Alexia Morgan was submitted, any Alexia Morgan songs would be excluded, including her work on other soundtracks. If the SOTF soundtrack featured a song by guest artist Bubba Dover, then as long as no other Bubba Dover songs were submitted, then Bubba Dover can be submitted for this contest, including his song from the SOTF soundtrack). This also works in vice versa, where Bubba Dover songs previously submitted would exclude anything from soundtracks, but if no Alexia Morgan instrumentals have been submitted, then Alexia Morgan songs can be submitted. Otherwise, I won't forbid entries solely based on soundtracks and compilations by themselves (ex. If a past entry was listed by the title of the work it came off, then that doesn't negate the entire soundtrack/compilation as long as the other rules are met i.e. "Dark Souls OST" may be submitted as long as the previous submission was not either 1. an instrumental piece by a composer or 2. an insert song listed on the track by a different artist. If the song doesn't fulfill either of those requirements, then anything else from "Dark Souls OST" can be submitted).
- If an artist appeared in a previously submitted song as an uncredited artist, I will not forbid them because they are not listed in the final track listing. Plus, that would also be a headache to look for any uncredited vocals or to exclude people for being backup artists.
- I am basing this off the artist/band/act that performs the song and is listed with the track. I am not looking deeper into production or anything beyond that as that would be too much of a headache. For the most part, I'll just be looking at album listings on websites for verification.
- If we happen to get multiple submissions this contest from the same artist who has never previously appeared, that will be permitted (ex. If there are two songs by the Peyote Coyote submitted this contest and no Peyote Coyote songs have appeared before, both songs will be approved). It's unlikely, but it's something I won't be too hard on.
- I will double check all submissions and give approval before I consider them officially submitted for a contest. If you think your submission may fall into conflict with any of the above rules, you are free to debate its availability for submission, although the final decision will be mine.
- I will amend any of the above conditions if there is too much confusion or if some of the rules make it difficult to submit anything.
You can review the songtest master list for review, as well as the songtest threads that may not be on the sheet to be sure. The additional conditions may make this seem difficult, but these are mostly to preemptively address any confusion with the theme. Like I said above, this contest is more about genres, acts, styles you haven't seen before and want to see represented. I think it's easy to work with these conditions, but please PM me if you have any questions or concerns.
Sign ups will go for 2 days, and then the first round will go up. You may Board PM me your submission or send it over Discord.
With that out of the way, let's get cooking.
Sign ups
1. Laurels!
2. LOA
3. Rugga
4. Pippi
5. Blizzard
6. Boogie
7. Yugi
8. Ohm
9. MK
10. Polybius
11. Jilly
12. Spindarene
13. Plush
14. Fenris
15. MurderWeasel
16. Buko
17. Pancapples
18. Jace
19. Shiola
20. Cactus
21. Methodical Slacker
22. RC
23. Riki
24. Kotorikun
25. Brackie
