Community: Contests  

YOU COULD WIN

Grand Prize:

  • 90-minute mentoring session with Capitol Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker.
  • Your song pitched to music industry execs through winners compilation CD for one year.
  • Three-day trip to Nashville including accommodations by Hilton Garden Inn and airfare from American Airlines.
  • Single-song demo produced at the Parlor Studios with professional producers and musicians.
  • Tickets for two (2) to the 2011 CMT Music Awards.
  • An acoustic Gibson guitar.
  • Much More

CMT Listener's Choice Award Winner:

  • A meeting with a major music publisher.
  • Three-day trip to Nashville including accommodations by Hilton Garden Inn and airfare from American Airlines.
  • Tickets for two (2) to the 2011 CMT Music Awards.
  • Private tour of CMT studios in Nashville.
  • One SHURE microphone.
  • Much More

10 Runners-up:

  • A meeting with a major music publisher.
  • Your song pitched to music industry execs through our winners compilation CD for one year.
  • One SHURE microphone.
  • Sonicbids 6-month subscription.
  • Zipbox Media 6 months free service.
  • NSAI Event gift certificate.
  • One-year NSAI membership.
  • One-year subscription to American Songwriter magazine.
  • Certificate of achievement.

10 Honorable Mentions:

  • Certificate of achievement.

All Entrants:

  • A free personalized judging report.

SWEEPS INFO

CMT urges users to refer to the contest rules, privacy policy, and Terms of Use info before entering any of our sweepstakes or contests.

NSAI Song Contest presented by CMT
Calling All Songwriters
Send us some of your best written songs, and you could win a mentoring session with Capital Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker and much more.

ENTER HERE

To enter by mail, print this form. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader which may be downloaded free on the Internet.)

For online submissions please go to sonicbids.com.

This is the 11th year of the NSAI Song Contest presented by CMT.

The prizes received by contest winners are designed to help amateur songwriters on their road to becoming a professional songwriter and enhance their careers.

Just a few of the prizes up for grabs this year include:
  • 90-minute mentoring session with Capitol Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker
  • Your song pitched to music industry execs through our Winners Compilation CD for one year
  • Three-day trip to Nashville including accommodations by Hilton Garden Inn and airfare by American Airlines
  • A private tour of the CMT studios
  • Entrance to the NSAI Songwriter Networking Program
  • Prizes from Gibson, SHURE, Elixir Strings, CMT and more


The Top 12 winning songwriters will each have their song pitched to music industry execs through our Winners Compilation CD for one year.

What’s the one thing every songwriter needs? Connections. And that’s exactly what sets the NSAI Song Contest Presented by CMT apart from all the others. The grand prize winner will receive a mentoring session from Capitol Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker. In the music business, the old saying, "It’s not what you know; it’s who you know," proves to be true, said Bart Herbison, Executive Director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

The popular CMT Listeners' Choice Award is also back for a fifth year. Beginning Jan. 15, 2011, the Top 10 finalists in the NSAI Song Contest presented by CMT will be posted at www.nsai.cmt.com. Music fans can go to the site through Feb. 28, 2011, listen to the finalists' demos and vote for their favorite song. The song with the most audience votes will be the CMT Listeners' Choice Award winner. Last year, the contest received over 450,000 votes.

Prizes are awarded to one (1) Grand Prize Winner, one (1) CMT Listeners' Choice Winner, ten (10) Runners-Up and ten (10) Honorable Mentions. The contest is open to all genres of music. All songs entered receive a judging report. Music industry executives, professional songwriters and NSAI board members judge songs based on lyrics, melody and composition. Performance and production will not be evaluated.

The entry cost is $35 per entry for NSAI members and $45 per entry for all non-NSAI members.

Songwriters may enter as many songs as they like.

All entries must be postmarked by the FINAL CONTEST DEADLINE: Oct. 31, 2010 (CST). All genres of music are accepted and encouraged.

The NSAI Song Contest is presented by CMT and sponsored by the following organizations: American Airlines, American Songwriter, ASCAP, Americana Music Association, BMI, Elixir, D’addario/Planet Waves, Gibson, Hilton Garden Inn, Motorola, Olympus, the Parlor Studios, SESAC, SHURE Microphones, Sonicbids, the Bluebird Cafe, We Make Tapes and Discs, Zipbox Media, Diamond Eye Music, Elevation Music Publishing, Ray Stevens Music, Roots Three Music, Skyline Music Publishing and Zavitson Music Group.

NSAI is the world's largest not-for-profit songwriters trade organization.

SPONSORS

Sponsors of the NSAI Song Contest presented by CMT:

American Airlines introduces AAdvantage® One Way Flex Awards. Customers now have more options, more flexibility and almost endless ways to customize award travel. New One-Way Flex Awards are offered at a one-way mileage rate which starts at just 12,500 miles for travel within the continental U.S. To learn more about this great new feature, visit our website at www.aa.com/flexawards.
www.americanairlines.com
The Americana Music Association is a professional trade organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the advocacy of Americana music and to promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field.
www.AmericanaMusic.org
Covering every aspect of the craft and business of songwriting.
www.americansongwriter.com
ASCAP is a membership association of over 240,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers of every kind of music as well as hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization with a board of directors elected by and from the membership.
www.ascap.com
A Nashville institution. Over 2,500 songwriters play this world famous music room each year. The bluebird cafe is an intimate venue for audiences to see and hear the music up close.
www.bluebirdcafe.com
Performing rights organization BMI represents more than 300,000 songwriters and publishers in all genres of music through its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million musical works from around the world.
www.bmi.com
D’Addario/ Making music isn't a hobby. It's a condition. Like eye color, male-pattern baldness and your penchant for Franklin Mint figurines, music is something you can't help. Making it is part of your genetic code. It's part of ours, too, which is proven by our cool music accessories from Planet Waves -- all the straps, cables, tuners, capos and other tools you need to be the rock star you always knew you were. With all these cool gadgets and gizmos, there's a ton of research and development to be done. So, with engineer masterminds and stellar customer service, there's no doubt that Planet Waves focuses on what you need -- even stuff you don't know you need. To find more info on other awesome things that make you rock, visit our website at www.PlanetWaves.com.
www.PlanetWaves.com
Guitar strings are coated in a micro-thin polymer for protection from contaminants that dampen vibration and accelerate corrosion. Elixir Strings sound and feel their best three to five times longer than ordinary strings.
www.elixirstrings.com
The official guitar of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).
www.gibson.com
At Hilton Garden Inn, we know how important big days are. Whether meeting with an important customer, interviewing for a job, reconnecting with family or conducting an important seminar, having everything you need the night before is critical to being your best. And that’s why we focus on five key pillars to ensure your stay is as pleasurable as it is productive: Sleep Deep, Work Smart, Eat Well, Stay Fit, Treat Yourself. When tomorrow is a big day, stay HGI tonight.
www.hiltongardeninn1.hilton.com/
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile.
www.motorola.com
Olympus Imaging America Inc. continues to be an innovator, developing new technologies to expand the frontiers of digital imaging and audio recording. Olympus leads where others have followed. Olympus technologies enable consumers to go places and do things they never thought possible, enhancing people's lives every day. Proof that Olympus enables consumers to capture it all.
www.olympusamerica.com
The Parlor Studio is a world class, Grammy award winning, Nashville recording studio owned by musician/songwriters who are dedicated to helping new and established music recording artists create the best possible record.
www.parlorproductions.com
SESAC is a performing rights organization with headquarters in Nashville and offices in New York, Los Angeles and London.
www.sesac.com
SHURE has been dedicated to helping you tell the truth with notes, words and sounds since 1925.
www.shure.com
Sonicbids is a Web site that helps bands get gigs and promoters book the right bands. Our community includes over 150,000 bands, singers, songwriters and performers of all kinds.
www.sonicbids.com
We are celebrating our 31 years of business in 2010. We have great prices, we get the job done when promised (or before!) and we actually respond to your phone inquiries real time -- no phone menus, messages or operators in a distant land.
www.wemaketapes.com
ZIPBOX Media is a media distribution solution that enables anyone to sell and distribute digital media without the need of third party support or applications. ZIPBOX Media includes a customizable website, digital media catalog, secure shopping cart and secure file downloader, accounting and sales reports, marketing components and integrated email.
www.zipboxmedia.com

Publishing Sponsors:
Diamond Eye Music
Elevation Music Publishing
Ray Stevens Music
Roots Three Music
Skyline Music Publishing
Zavitson Music Group


Media Sponsors:
Country Weekly Magazine
Graffiti Indoor Advertising
JACK-fm
Music City Unsigned
Nashville Scene