Rules overview
Brief Overview of the Rules
(scroll down for the full set of rules—really though, you probably should read them all)
OK, long story short, our competition has a few rules you're going to need to know...
1. You have to be a U.S. resident. Easy enough.
2. One person equals one username, i.e. no registering under multiple names so you can vote for yourself.
3. You must be at least 14 to enter, but you can be as old as you like. There's no age limit. Seniors ARE welcome, but if you're under 14, you're going to need a legal guardian's permission.
4. You can't be signed to a label, publisher or anybody else that will make our lives difficult and impede your ability to accept our prizes. Don't get it mixed-up, you can still use the site if you're big-time, you just can't enter competitions.
5. You can't enter if you work Music Nation or any of our fantastic partners. You also can't live with or be related to anyone who does. End of story.
Some other things you should keep in mind:
Don't upload Prohibited Content (you know, like stuff that violates other people's rights or porn).
Don't cheat or look the other way if your fans are cheating for you. Last but not least, we can take your video or artist page down if we want to and we will if you violate any of the rules. Just play nice.
How Do You Win?
Every week for eight weeks we pick two quarterfinalists. One is chosen by our cast of industry judges, the other is picked by you (by your votes). Voters and judges are to base their votes on the following criteria: musicianship, performance skill, image, personality and songwriting skill.
Once we've gotten sixteen bands/artists chosen, those sixteen move on to the quarterfinals. First though, they've got to sign a bunch of paperwork (Eligibility and Publicity/Liability Releases and the Quarter Finalist Option Agreement). Each quarterfinalist has just five days to sort out the paperwork, otherwise, well, we have to disqualify them. At this point its up to the judges who moves forward, but they're looking at your votes for guidance. Music Nation will notify the winner within seven days via e-mail. The winning contestant has one day to get back to us. In short, don't go camping Finals Week if you want to claim your prize.
What do you win?
A record deal, of course, but you can win a bunch of other stuff as well. See the Prizes Page for more specific details. The approximate value of the grand prize is $250,000.
So that's the short version. This summary is by no means complete. It's legally required that you check out the competition rules in their below. Plus, it makes our lawyer happy. I mean she spent like a month writing these things.
OFFICIAL RULES AND PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT
THIS CONTEST IS OPEN ONLY TO LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES AGED FOURTEEN (14) AND ABOVE WHO AGREE TO COMPLY WITH THESE OFFICIAL RULES AND PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT DURING THE REGISTRATION PROCESS. BY CLICKING “THE OFFICIAL RULES” OPT-IN BOX UPON REGISTRATION, YOU ARE AGREEING TO COMPLY WITH ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THESE OFFICIAL RULES AND PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT. YOU AGREE THAT THIS AGREEMENT IS ENFORCEABLE LIKE ANY WRITTEN NEGOTIATED AGREEMENT PHYSICALLY SIGNED BY YOU.
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible to participate in the Music Nation Contest ("Contest"), you and all members of your musical group (if you are not a solo artist) must (i) be a legal U.S. resident; (ii) have registered on Music Nation's web site (the “Website”) and agreed to the Website Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Prohibited Content Policy as well as these Official Rules and Participation Agreement, (iii) be above the age of fourteen (14) in the state in which you reside at the time of registration, and (iv) not be under any third party agreement with a record label, production company, publishing company or any other third party who might interfere with you and/or your musical group’s participation (as applicable) in this Contest and/or receipt of the prizes awarded. As used in these Official Rules and Participation Agreement "you" refers to you and all members of your musical group on whose behalf you are entering this Contest. Employees, officers, and directors of the member companies of Music Nation, Sony BMG Music Entertainment ("Sony BMG") and any other prize suppliers, their subsidiaries and affiliated companies and their immediate families and those living in their households, are not eligible to participate in the Contest. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
SPONSOR
Music Nation, Inc., located at 455 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, New York 10013, is the sponsor of the Contest ("Music Nation").
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Music Nation will be collecting personal information about you as a participant when you register and participate in the Contest. Music Nation will share this personal information in order to fulfill the requirements of the Contest, including sharing such information with record label partners, promotional partners, agents and other third parties in connection with the Contest. In addition, Music Nation may, at its discretion, share your personal information with its affiliates, parent, and subsidiary companies, or other third parties whose products and services Music Nation believes may be of interest to you. For more information on the privacy practices of Music Nation, please visit the privacy policy located at http://musicnation.com/privacy. Submission of a completed registration constitutes acceptance of these Official Rules and Participation Agreement, including the terms of the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Prohibited Content Policy.
TERM
The current Contests will commence on September 24, 2007 at 12:01 a.m. EST and end on or around [insert date] at 11:59 p.m. EST ("Term"). Qualifying Artist Pages submitted prior to [insert date]are eligible to compete to win the Grand Prize.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To enter the Contest(s), you must create your artist page with at least one uploaded music video or MP3 format of your original recording (“Recording”) together with any other materials you created that you wish to submit (“Qualifying Artist Page”) and “opt-in” to the applicable Contest by agreeing to these Official Rules and Participation Agreement and indicating which Contest you wish to enter. You and your Qualifying Artist Page will then be considered in the competition against all of the other participants and Qualifying Artist Pages submitted in that particular Contest.
PARTICIPATION BY MINORS
If you are fourteen (14) years of age or older, but under the age of majority in the state in which you reside, you will need to have your parents consent to your registration. In order for Music Nation to obtain this consent, we will require you to submit your parent or legal guardian's email address at the time that you register. We will send your parent or legal guardian an email informing him/her of your attempted registration and provide him/her with a copy of these Official Rules and Participant Agreement and the other applicable terms (e.g the Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Prohibited Content Policy). At that time, your parent or legal guardian must consent to your registration by replying to the email notification as set forth in the notification by the deadline for entry.
REQUIRED FORMATS FOR MATERIALS
Recording
Your Recording must meet the following format requirements: (1) it must be in AVI (Audio Video Interleave); MOV (QuickTime); DV (Digital Videos); MPG (MPEG-2); ASF/WMV (Windows Media Video); MP3; or MP4 (MPEG-4) format; (2) it must not be larger than 100MB; (3) it must not be longer than 10 minutes; and (4) it must have a resolution of 320 x 240.
STILL IMAGES
Any still images you upload must meet the following format requirements: JPEG, GIF or PNG,
AUDIO FILES
Any audio files you upload must meet the following format requirements: MP3.
WARRANTY
By submitting a Recording and any other materials (together with the Recording, the “Materials”), you warrant and represent that (i) the Materials embody original work, created solely by you, and the use by Music Nation permitted herein and as provided in the Terms of Use and Prohibited Content Policy do not infringe on any third party's intellectual property rights, including copyrights, trademarks, or other proprietary or personal rights; (ii) the Materials do not contain material which could be construed as defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, causing harm, obscene, profane, pornographic or otherwise sexually oriented, threatening, harassing to anyone or which may impair others from using or enjoying the Website; (iii) the underlying composition(s) embodied in the song(s) you perform are composition(s) that you own or control, or for which you have obtained a license from all rights holders for all of the uses to be made of the Materials by Music Nation and/or its licensees pursuant to the grant of rights hereunder for either commercial or promotional purposes. You warrant and represent that the Materials are free and clear of any claims and liens by any person whose performances or depictions are embodied in the work, or any person rendering services in connection with the work. You warrant and represent that the Materials does not contain any materials owned or controlled by a third party for which you have not obtained a license, including without limitation, samples, clips, "mashups," "remixes," or the like.
TAKEDOWN RIGHT
Music Nation reserves the right to reject, refuse to accept, remove or otherwise handle as Music Nation deems appropriate any Material(s) that it deems to be inappropriate for submission to the Contest or otherwise in violation of these Official Rules and Participation Agreement, the Terms of Use or the Prohibited Content Policy, including but not limited to this Warranty, without notification to you and Music Nation shall have no liability to you or any other person in connection with any such action.
OTHER CONDITIONS ON PARTICIPATION
By participating in the Contest, you agree that (i) you are not participating on behalf of any employer or third party, (ii) all registrations and votes are the property of Music Nation, (iii) registrations and votes will not be returned or acknowledged, (iv) Music Nation is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or otherwise voided entries, Materials or votes, or for any computer-related, online, telephonic, or technical malfunctions that may occur, (v) registrations, votes, and Materials will be considered void if they are in whole or in part illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, counterfeit, submitted on behalf of any third party, produced in error, forged, mechanically reproduced, or otherwise obtained through fraud or theft.
OWNERSHIP IN MATERIALS AND LICENSES GRANTED
You retain all ownership rights that you have in your Materials. However, by submitting the Materials to Music Nation, you hereby grant to Music Nation a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-restrictive, royalty-free, sublicenseable, and transferable license in perpetuity to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, make available, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, edit, mix, combine, superimpose, create or add special effects and/or other materials to all or any portion of the Materials (including any titles of the Materials and your name and likeness), and any audio and/or visual excerpts thereof, in connection with the Contests, on MusicNation.com (and all places where some or all of the content from MusicNation.com is available), and otherwise in connection with any of Music Nation's and/or its affiliates’ and/or partners’ current and/or future businesses, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of MusicNation.com (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of MusicNation.com and any of its licensee’s sites a non-exclusive license to access and view the Materials. If you do not want Music Nation to share your Materials or obtain any rights in your Materials, please do not upload these materials and/or participate in the Contest. Additionally, you agree to grant to Music Nation all rights to use any Materials that you submit, and your image, likeness, voice, name, and photograph in correlation with the Materials in any presentations, marketing materials, reports, publicity or advertising relating to the Materials, Music Nation and its partners and licensees, and/or the Contest(s).
HOW TO WIN
Weekly Rounds
Each Contest starts off with eight (8) weekly rounds of judging during the Term of the applicable Contest. Each week, a panel of judges who have experience or knowledge related to the music or entertainment industries and who may work for Music Nation ("Judges") and registered consumer voters ("Voters") will each vote for one (1) participant (for a total of two (2) participants) as potential Quarter Finalists. Specifically, the Judges, in their sole discretion, will select one (1) participant during each weekly round to be a potential Quarter Finalist. The second person to be selected each week as a potential Quarter Finalist will be suggested by Voters, subject to final approval by the Judges.
During the Term, Voters may make only one (1) vote per artist per day during the Contest via the Website or one (1) vote per artist per day via text message. Votes will be considered void and will not be counted if Music Nation determines that they (or the applicable user’s registration) are in whole or in part illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, counterfeit, submitted on behalf of any third party, produced in error, forged, mechanically reproduced, generated by a robotic, programmed, script, macro, other automated means, or otherwise obtained through fraud or theft.
The Judges and Voters must use the following judging criteria when reviewing the participants and placing their votes:
Musicianship - 20%
Performance skills - 30%
Image - 30%
Personality - 10%
Songwriting skills - 10%
Votes and Judges points may not be accumulated or combined from week to week during any weekly rounds. Each week, all eligible remaining participants will be evaluated based on the judging criteria listed above and no weight or value will be given to any previous evaluation(s) related to Materials previously evaluated, but not selected to advance to the next round of the Contest. Participants who are not selected during a weekly round will remain in the pool of participants and may be selected in a later week. At the end of the 8 weekly rounds, if a participant has not been selected, he or she will not be able to move to the Quarter Finals. At the end of the eight (8) weekly rounds, there will be up to sixteen (16) participants in each applicable Contest who move forward into the Quarter Final Round.
In the event of a tie during a weekly round, Judges will make the final selection of the winner.
Quarter Final Round
To be eligible to participate in the Quarter Final Round, all participants who were selected to move forward to the Quarter Final Round must sign an Affirmation of Eligibility and Publicity/Liability Release and the Quarter Finalist Option Agreement (and provide parental consent for such agreements if necessary), where lawful. A summary of the Quarter Finalist Option Agreement may be obtained by [clicking here ]. Only if these documents are fully executed may the participant move into the Quarter Final Round. If a participant: (a) does not wish to move forward to the Quarter Final Round; (b) is ineligible; or (c) does not complete and return the required paperwork within five (5) business days of receiving these documents, the participant will be disqualified and Music Nation will select, as an alternative, the participant who had the next highest score in the applicable weekly round.
All eligible Quarter Finalist artists will be published as official Quarter Finalists on the Website for a Quarter Finals period of one (1) week. During this week, the Materials will be displayed for Voters to evaluate and place their votes.
After the week-long time period, the Judges will evaluate the Quarter Finalist Recordings based on the following criteria:
Musicianship - 30%
Performance skills - 30%
Total Votes - 40%
The eight (8) participants who have the highest score will move into the Semi-Final Round. In the event of a tie during the Quarter Final Round, Judges will make the final selection of the winner.
Semi-Final Round
All eligible Semi-Finalist artists will be published as official Semi-Finalists on the Website for a period of one (1) week. Music Nation reserves the right to designate a song to be recorded by each or any Semi-Finalist. During this week the Recordings will be displayed for Voters to evaluate and place their votes. After the week-long time period, the Judges and will evaluate the Semi-Finalist Materials based on the following criteria:
Musicianship - 30%
Performance skills - 30%
Total Votes - 40%
The Judges will select the two (2) participants in the Semi-Final round with the highest scores. In the event of a tie during the Semi-Final Round Music Nation will make the final selection of the winner.
Final Round
In the Final Round, there will be a total of two (2) Finalists. Music Nation reserves the right to designate a song to be recorded by each or any Finalist. After reviewing Recordings from the two (2) Finalists, a panel of judges comprised of individuals from Music Nation and/or Epic Records ("Finalist Judges") will evaluate the Recordings based on the following criteria:
Musicianship - 20%
Performance skills - 30%
Image - 20%
Personality - 10%
Entertainment - 10%
At the end of the Final Round, the Finalist Judges will select one (1) potential Grand Prize winner to receive the Grand Prize described on the Prize Page. In the event of a tie during the Final Round, Finalist judges will make the final selection of the winner.
Structure of the Contest:
Level - Week
Weekly Rounds - 1
2 - 2
3 - 2
4 - 2
5 - 2
6 - 2
7 - 2
8 - 2
Totals - 16
Quarter Final Round - Quarter-Finals
Totals - 8
Semi Final Round - Semi-Finals
Semi-Final Totals - 2
Final Round - Total Finalists in Finale
Total Winners - 1
WINNER NOTIFICATION
Within seven (7) days of determining the Grand Prize winner for the Contest, Music Nation will notify the potential Grand Prize Winner. The potential Grand Prize Winner will be notified by e-mail. The potential Grand Prize Winner must respond to the e-mail within twenty-four (24) hours to be eligible to receive the Grand Prize. Music Nation, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and any other provider of prizes and their respective affiliates, parent, and subsidiary companies, employees, agents, officers, and directors, advertising and contest agencies, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and their respective agents will not be liable for unsuccessful efforts to notify any potential Grand Prize Winner(s).
If the potential Grand Prize winner declines the Grand Prize, fails to claim the Grand Prize, fails to meet the requirements for fulfillment of the Grand Prize, fails to abide by the Official Rules and/or Participation Agreement, the Terms of Use and/or Prohibited Content Policy, or is otherwise determined to be ineligible in Music Nation's sole discretion, Music Nation may select as a new potential Grand Prize winner, the participant with the next highest overall score in the Final Round of the Contest.
QUARTER FINALIST OPTION AGREEMENT
If you are selected to become a Quarter Finalist, you will be required to sign a written Quarter Finalist Option Agreement with either Sony BMG Music Entertainment and/or Music Nation that grants to Sony BMG and/or Music Nation the option to enter into an exclusive recording agreement with you, which will include the exclusive right to record and distribute sound recordings and which will, at a minimum, include all customary terms in a recording agreement for development level artists.
If you are selected to become a Quarter Finalist, but do not win the Contest, you agree to grant to Sony BMG and/or Music Nation the option to enter into a demo-type recording agreement with you which will, at a minimum, include all customary terms in a demo-type recording agreement for development level artists.
Both the development and demo agreements described above are available upon request from Music Nation. Click here to request a summary of these agreements.
WHAT DO YOU WIN?
Grand Prize. The participant selected as the Grand Prize winner will receive: (i) as more fully described on the Prize Page, a recording agreement with either Sony BMG and/or Music Nation which consists of Sony BMG's and/or Music Nation’s exercise of the Quarter Finalist Option Agreement described above; and (ii) additional prizes as listed on the Prize Page.
Approximate Value of the Grand Prize is more fully described on the Prize Page.
The Grand Prize winner will also be provided with hotel accommodations and airfare for any promotional obligations that arise out of the Contest (e.g. television appearances).
Music Nation reserves the right, in it sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant who is under a third-party agreement which Music Nation deems as contradictory to the amateur nature of this Contest. Music Nation assumes no responsibility for any disputes among members of bands that are entered into the Contest with regard to the songs submitted into the Contest, or any disputes among the various individuals and/or entities that have collective interest in any submitted song. In the event that any such dispute or personnel change interferes with the operation of the Contest, entrants and their respective band members involved in the dispute may be disqualified, in Music Nation's sole discretion.
Music Nation reserves the right to hold additional, separate sub-contests that will be announced during the term of the Contest. In the event that Music Nation chooses to hold additional, separate sub-contests, it will post the information on the Website.
ABILITY TO TERMINATE
Music Nation reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend all or part of the Contest. If Music Nation, in its sole discretion, determines that the Contest, or a portion of the Contest, is impractical, or if any portion of the Contest is deemed to be fraudulent, void, unlawful or if there are any technical or administrative malfunctions, errors or other problems that affect the structure, terms or lawful administration of the Contest, Music Nation may terminate, cancel or otherwise modify the applicable Contest, in whole or in part.
DISQUALIFICATION
Any violation of these official rules by any participant, in Music Nation's sole discretion, will result in such participant's immediate disqualification from the Contest.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
By submitting a completed registration on the Website, participants release Music Nation, Sony/BMG, and any other prize provider and their affiliates, parents, and subsidiaries companies, record label partners, sponsors, employees, agents and officers, advertising and promotion agencies, as well as all others providing prizes and/or otherwise associated with the development and execution of the Contest, from and against any and all liability with respect to or in any way arising from the Contest, and the awarding and use of any prize(s). Music Nation assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction of, or unauthorized access to, any Contest registration, voting or Materials submission, or alteration of registration data.
LAWS
The Contest is governed by the laws of New York without regard to the conflicts of law provisions.
WINNER'S LIST
To obtain the names of the winners of the Contest, please visit the Website located at www.musicnation.com where a winners list will be posted for at least thirty (30) days following the completion of the Contest but will be available upon request for at least one hundred and eighty days (180) after the winners are selected. Requests are made to Music Nation ATTN: jake@musicnation.com
