Song Fu Withdrawl?

Ok...ever since Ken Plume pulled the plug on Masters Of Song Fu, some people that used to participate have been sort of wondering what to do now. I've been in chats with a number of people where the subject turns to starting a Song Fu replacement. I've suggested people try Song Fight & Nur Ein, but most were more interested in having their own thing. Russ Rogers is attempting a project called "The White Elephant" over on Facebook. That has interested some, while others seem to want a simpler more structured approach.

I know Jeff MacDougall toyed with the idea of starting something, but thus far it was only discussion with a few of the old TMA crew (as far as I know). Lots of ideas have been floated around by many people. A few have suggested I do something with Spintown, and I've always come up with many excuses for not doing it. A recent discussion over at ArtiFiction with Bryce, Heather & JoAnn finally got me to thinking it's something I can handle on a small scale here at Spintown.

If I do this, and right now I'm just seeing if there's interest from people to participate, it will NOT be Song Fu. It would be a cross between Song Fu & Nur Ein, hopefully taking what most people like best about each.

Official Sign Up Info
Schedule:
It will have a similar schedule to Song Fu. There will be 4 rounds. You will have 9-12 days to write, record & send in your song. There will be a short break of 5-7 days between each round. During this time the song will be voted on, reviewed & prep for the next round will be made. A final schedule will be made when we see how many people are interested in participating. (Rough Draft Of Schedule)

Voting:
The voting will be done like Nur Ein. There will be 5 judges who are not participating in the contest (probably all from the old TMA community). Each round they will individually rate all the songs from favorite to least favorite. Then the judges scores will be posted & added up. There will be NO popular vote. Here's an example of what the scoring would look like:


Eliminations:
Each round people will be eliminated from the competition. I can't say how exactly the break down will go until I know how many people are participating. But lets say 20 people enter; 6 would be voted out the first round, 6 the second round, 6 the third round, and then the last round would be the final two competitors. If you are eliminated or fail to enter the contest, you can still enter shadow entries. This is not a head to head contest, the competitors with the lowest vote totals are eliminated. Ties are settled by a popular vote in the form of a poll I'll start for each round.

Final Round:
In the last round, everyone who has been eliminated will be allowed to vote. Again, a popular vote will be used as a tie breaker. This round the judges have no say in matters. However they will still be required to review each song.

Challenges:
The challenges will be similar to the old Song Fu & "Non Optional" Nur Ein challenges. If you go through the old challenges you'll see that they could be anything. You could be given a theme, restrictions, and hopefully you're forced to do things you've never done before. The challenges will be created by myself & the other judges. You will be required to send in your entries as MP3's along with the LYRICS of your entry.

Hosting:
In the past when people suggested I do something like this, hosting was one of the excuses I used not to do it. However...I think BandCamp a long with a widget Heather Zink found will handle any problems I had. Each round the songs would be uploaded onto this blog with this widget:



With this you can listen to all the songs right here at Spintown without going anywhere. The songs will also be uploaded onto BandCamp each round as an album/EP. So the songs will be posted on a temp basis here, but permanently on BandCamp. The songs will be set for free download only, and everyone would have to be ok with this going into the competition. BandCamp will make it easy to download songs, share 1 song individually or the round as a whole. I set up an account, but I am not very familiar with the ins & outs of copyright. So anyone with a BandCamp account that knows a little more about doing compilation albums...drop me a line.

Prize:
I didn't plan on having there be a prize. No trophy. No cash. When we come up for a name for this competition I wouldn't be against someone designing & donating a T-shirt for the winner. But the real prize is knowing you won & the music itself. If you need gifts & hundreds of popular votes to motivate you to write songs in this competiton...it ain't for you. Nothing against those things, we just ain't having it. (aside from tie breakers) If this goes well, I will consider bringing in a popular vote in some form if people demand it.

Wrap Up:
I could get sign ups started as soon as next week if the interest is there. I mean I'm ready, my partner Heather is ready, I could get a couple more judges & everything started very quickly. One thing I promise is that I'll be more open & reachable then a certain someone who's name sounds like doom.

Your Input:
Most of this stuff is set in stone as far as I'm concerned. I could use input from yall in a couple areas though:

- Are you interested in competing? Give me a definate 'yes' or 'no' if you can participate....if you can that is.

- What should this competition be called?

- A little advice about BandCamp, and setting up a compilation album.

- Have I overlooked something or need to explain something a little more?

- If you don't have a Blogger account & want to leave a comment below that's fine. But leave your name in the comment or contact me via e-mail @