Song Of The Year Scam? Yes It Is In My Opinion!

A common scam in the music world is the songwriting contest.  This type of scam takes advantage of new songwriters by charging them a fee to enter a contest  that does not pay them their prizes or give them access to people in the record labels. My subscribers have requested that I take a look at Songoftheyear.com.  Here is what I have found.

Song Of The Year Scam Claims

Song of the Year is an international songwriting contest encouraging the art and discipline of songwriting. Our primary focus is to find great songwriters while helping them network with professionals in the music industry.

The songwriting contest’s Winners and Finalists from each of the ten categories will have their material sent to record labels, publishers, management companies, promoters and many other music industry insiders for further consideration.

Song of the Year has been a leading resource for songwriters for 15 years.

Song Of The Year Scam Reality

The name and address of the organization or person that runs this contest is not listed on the contest website.  The names of the people that judge the songs are not listed.  This is a giant red flag.

Here is the vague description of who judges the songs:

Judges include numerous Grammy Award Winners, major and minor Record Labels, individuals from Clear Channel Radio, professional songwriters and individuals who have worked with Nickelback, Tim McGraw, Ludacris, Sting, INXS, Beyonce, Linkin Park, Rascal Flatts, Pink, Bruno Mars, Avril Lavigne, Harry Connick Jr, Cold Play, Amy Grant, Katy Perry, Adele, Madonna, Casting Crowns, Train and many more.

Here is a recent comment on a songwriters website that exposes the scam:

Virtually everyone that enters gets a runner up, honorable mention, suggested artist, semi-finalist or finalist certificate. They stroke your ego and pocket your money. Now you can add that award to your credentials. If you are picked as a winner of the top 10 categories, like I was, you become eligible for the top 3 grand prizes. 1st place is $30,000 plus another $10,000 in equipment. 2nd place is $10,000 and several thousand in equipment. 3rd prize is a disproportionate $100.00. There are four of these contests per year. You do the math! How can they afford these huge payouts. It’s easy. They don’t payout the grand prizes. None of the top two winners are actually real. Try to google them. Nothing comes up except on a SOTY website. – Source Songwriter101.com

The Mac Pro that they offer as a prize is no longer available from Apple. 

The Mac Pro that is currently available from Apple looks like this:

Yamaha and The Guitar Center have verified that they are not sponsors of this contest.

Here is a video expose of this scam:

A fake scam alert website was setup to provide cover for this scam with a fake review and included is the following statement:

With this minor concern set aside, my conclusion is that Song of the Year does offer some nice opportunities to songwriters. I am giving them nine points out of ten. This is the highest score ever given to a songwriting contest. – Source Scam-scams.org

This fake site has given no other scores or reviewed any other songwriting contests. It is clearly designed to keep people participating in this contest scam.

Here is the most recent name and address linked with this business:

Zayda Zod
PO BOX 1683
Bakersfield, California 93304

Here are some additional web addresses linked with Zayda Zod:

songoftheyear.com
songoftheyear.net
songoftheyear.org
songoftheyear.me
songoftheyear.info
songoftheyear.tv
songoftheyear.songoftheyear.com
artistfoundation.org
lyriccontest.com
artistfoundation.com
europeansongcontest.com
freesongcontest.com
lyric-competition.com
lyric-contest.com
lyriccontests.com
musiciansfoundation.com
songwritercoalition.com
vh1songwritingcontest.com
poemcontest.net
songstop.net
songwritercontest.net
songwriting-contest.net
songwritingcontest.net
songwritingdirectory.net
bandcontests.org
poemcontest.org
recorddeal.org
song-writing-contest.org
musiccontest.us
songcontest.us
songwritingcontest.us

This scam has been busted in the past for deceptively making people think they were linked with VH1 when they have no connection with them.

If you would like to participate in legitimate songwriting contests, here is a link to an ASCAP approved list:

http://www.ascap.com/music-career/resource-guide/resource-10.aspx

Song Of The Year Scam Conclusion

In my opinion, Songoftheyear.com is a songwriting contest scam.  They deceptively take your money for a contest that provides little or no value to you. Avoid the Song of the Year scam.