I actually like that the three-way division puts the majority focus (two-thirds) on songwriting, with just one-third on recording. Whereas the further breakdown I proposed made it 50/50, which I think is not as good, since SpinTunes is “supposed” to be a songwriting competition. With the further breakdown, I’d be inclined to bump at least the Challenge category and possibly also Lyrics and Composition so that they’d be worth more than the Vocal/Instrumental/Production categories. This would put that stronger focus on the writing.

There are lots of possibilities!

I definitely expect others to feel differently than me about the complexity of the challenges. I personally ignore most published news, but even if I didn’t, I’d feel the same way about this challenge. Finding an article with the explicit intention of it being something on which to base a song, and then finding one of who knows how many possible angles in actually writing, that all seems to me to inherently involve more work than most contestants would typically need to put into other challenges to get the point of readiness to write. None of this is to say there weren’t many nice things about the challenge. I enjoyed it a lot. I wasn’t commenting on whether it was a good or bad challenge, only on its placement in Round 2.

Interesting ideas about album inclusion.

Of course, if a songwriter thinks their song is terrible, they can simply choose not to enter it. And if a songwriter really likes their own song that judges end up saying is terrible, that’s an opportunity for artistic growth both in terms of considering the judges’ feedback and also in sticking up for one’s artistic voice despite judges feedback.

As for anonymity, anyone can enter the contest with a band name / stage name that doesn’t actually identify them, but that’s a decision made up front. I personally wouldn’t want people who’ve already announced their participation to suddenly come up with a new pseudonym midway. It would make a mess out of participation across rounds. E.g., “Wait, Edric has an entry in round 3? But he didn’t submit something in round 2. Oh, you mean that song with that pseudonym was really Edric?” And then the truth would have to come out anyway, and there’d be no anonymity, not to mention a mess for Travis when updating the hall of fame

Though to be fair, “write a song based on something you just saw in the news” is something I’m inclined to do *anyway*. Regarding finding an article, couldn’t you browse Google News until something strikes your fancy?

One improvement suggestion I had – for the benefit of both the performers and the listeners – would be to only require that the *winning* songs in the early rounds go on the album. If under time/topic pressure I produce something universally judged to be terrible I’m not sure I want it to be forever available publicly. Come to think of it, that also argues for entering under an alias – which would have solved Eric’s problem too.