Are There Enough Songwriters On Steemit To Host A Songwriting Contest To Win A New Guitar?
Are there enough songwriters on Steemit to run a songwriting contest? Would you like to win a new guitar?
I had an interesting conversation with @meno, one of the winner's of Steemit Open Mic Week 51, who had an idea he wanted to share. He sent me a message in Steemit chat and gave me permission to share it with the community to see if there is some interest. It reads"
I know that you and @pfunk are big on original music
I used to even run events for songwriters here in Miami, many moons ago
I was thinking we could do a songwriter competition
and here is where it gets interesting...I actually have a small music retail business
so I would be willing to donate to the event for the winner an acoustic guitar with case.We would have to agree on the logistics of the contest, maybe do it for 4-week... 16 songwriters, to 8, to 4, to a winner
Each week we would have to decide on the theme of the week you have to write about.
Everyone of course gets to keep their song rights and all that.
My goal is to promote the creation of original material and grow of course within the community @meno
I think a songwriting contest to win a new guitar would be an awesome idea to promote on Steemit Open Mic, if, there are enough songwriters who enter.
Image credit Before jumping right in though, I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback from the community.
What do you think of the idea and would you support it?
If you're a songwriter, or know someone who is, would you enter the contest, or tell them about it?
This post is to gauge community interest and engage with your ideas and comments so please let us know in the comments below.
If we have enough interest we will make more posts with updates letting you know the details.
Are there enough songwriters on Steemit interested in entering a songwriting contest to win a new guitar?
@meno just made a post about this idea too which you can read here. New Idea For Steemian's Original Musicians --- by @meno
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I am a songwriter! :D I would participate more for the fun though, as I am a leftie I use leftie guitars...
It would be a very nice experience anyway, so I hope there will be enough songwriters here!
Thank you for commenting, well this is precisely why we wanted to run the idea by the family... I didn't even consider the fact that there are lefty players... but I'm glad to see this would not deter you from participating..
We are such a minority hahahaha.
Of course not! It is a great idea for promoting songwriters!
Lefties are their own breed of a guitarist.
this sounds great to me, I love the idea. I would be down to try and make an entry happen. huge guys
Oohh @soundlegion you have to be part of this, I would insist until you had no choice hahha
I miss notifications a lot, I'm often on a scramble for posting. This is great idea my friend and I def would love to take part, if it hits you, when you drop an official starting post on this idea please link me a comment on one of my posts or try and hit me up in discord @soundlegion
Yes, you got some great songs.
U serious sir...would be soooo cooool. Seee ya around.
Hello, what a beautiful idea, several thoughts from me:
I love about openmic, that actually there are plenty of winners, and who is in the top3 sometimes is not the most important thing. You can get a nice reward, interaction, ideas, even if you are not the best fit for what the judges are looking for. Maybe you are a fit for someone in the audience and for them you are the top. And sometimes that matters even more.
I would love if the same friendly atmosphere could be kept in this competition. Artists are very sensitive people, even though, here we hide behind nicknames and our virtual identities. I wouldn't want to anyone to be demotivated about such a super personal thing like writing songs - because someone felt his writing was not good enough.
the guitar looks beautiful! ... but maybe not everyone is a guitar player? My personal goal here on steemit is to make enough money to buy some nice piano/keyboard. Of course, I would be super grateful to win a guitar, but maybe it is not motivation for everyone to win a guitar.
it would be nice to have several categories - vote of judges, vote of people, funny songs, songs from your deepest heart, because there are so many different songwriters, and I think it is very hard to put them all in one basket.
that is all, thanks for the idea :)
... and yes I would love to participate, I like this one week length, it gives you enough time and space, but also the needed kick to actually do something ...
You got the right idea there... so far I've already received enough feedback to get a much more clearer picture of how we could make this be the best experience possible. In a way this is just the start, I mean look were the open mic was a year ago and look at it now... we could eventually get a big sponsor to join in and have different prizes that could appeal to many more people. Thank you for commenting and for being willing to participate too
You're right on point with everything you said. I don't really think of Open Mic as a competition because music is not competitive as everyone wins. The focus has always been on building community and listening to and sharing music.
Glad you get it.
Oh yes, I would jump for this! The #openmic has already given me so much enjoyment, keeping the creative juices cooking. There's an abundance of originality in us all, and I imagine it could be very progressive to raise a stage and spotlight for singer-songwriters in this way. One thought I have is the idea of a weekly "prompt" or "theme" that could spur new ideas, while also focusing everyone's contributions as a cohesive unit each week (see the Steemit Culinary Challenge for an example of this). This strategy might ensure that people's songs are truly original, and it also encourages the spirit of innovation. I promise to participate.
@meno mentioned something about possible running it for 4 weeks with a theme each week and as each week progresses the number of finalists would be reduced until we had a winner. Just an idea.
What do you think?
I do like the idea of incentives, as a way of motivating people to participate. So I tend to like the idea of a prize (guitar or whatever) that goes to the winner. But it might be a mistake to eliminate participants through the rounds until there's only one winner remaining, because this type of exclusivity would limit the participation. Plus, art forms like songwriting are so subjective, obviously, and I'd hate to see good songwriters judged and bumped out by bad taste. So, instead of reducing the number of participants, how about tallying up the votes each participant receives week-after-week, and then maybe the one with the most votes wins (or something like that). This could encourage more engagement (that's the goal!), because each week the participant will have the chance to gain more votes. Know what I mean? Yeah, in my mind, the openness of your open mic is one of the keys to is success. It's not only for the elite; it's for all of us, all the time.
Agree with cabe here, I do not like the reducing down so much.
I think it works for big shows on TV like Xf-actor, as there is this rush, of who is going to loose more than who is going to win. Personally, I do not think this concept is very motivational for songwriters and artists. We are not hockey-players or footballers, and we do not really compete with each other. We do not need the other one to loose in order to win.
Great point, yes, I've noticed the same truth among the graphic designers here on Steemit. Artists are lovers, rather than fighters. We're less inclined to compete, and more inclined to create.
Good suggestions. Tallying only the votes though would give those with more followers and those who enter sooner an unfair advantage. For this reason it can't be the only determining factor.
Excellent point! I didn't think of that. Yes, you're right. Hm. I'll give it some more thought. Maybe there's a way to keep the participation up, and possibly even build more and more engagement throughout the event if there are incentives for audience members to return and voice their opinions in favor of one songwriter or another.
That is a really good idea. I'm going to let that thought stew a bit.
Sounds great! I would be in!
I haven’t written a song in a couple years, but I sometimes co-write with some friends of mine and I will definitely mention this idea to them. I dig it!
Cool, send them here and let's get their input.
Hey @louielowa you need to read this one! I bet you'll like it, you're welcome hehehe
I can't wait to read the replies... ;)
Me too. Let's see if we have some songwriters ready to step up.
I just updated this post with a link to the post you made about this idea.
you cant read them all since some get taken out if they dont follow in line,or tell the truth about how they feel. I think it's a great idea,but some go right to the bottom past the previous weeks and its like their music is being played in a cave! jus sayin'
sounds like an awesome idea!
It would be awesome, right?
If I had more time, I think it would be the time for some prolific writing!
Bring it on! I'm so down. I'm always writing. Been posting my stuff on here too, and now that I think of it I've been meaning to submit to the open mic.
Still plenty of time until Friday to enter this week.
https://steemit.com/openmic/@luzcypher/steemit-open-mic-week-54-record-your-performance-and-win-steem-sponsored-by-pfunk-and-luzcypher