Ok so you see them ALL the time, remix comps left right and centre. The problem i’ve noticed these days that not only are they a comp in themselves, but now it’s all about gaining ‘votes’ aka ‘popularity contest’ and/or major cheating just to gather votes. Surely it should just be about the quality and sound of the production?
It all seems to me like a bit of a farce. Reminds me of bullsht DJ competitons.
It seems such a waste to spend all that time doing a remix, for it to barely even get heard.
Since the label holds the licensing, you’re pretty fcked to do anything with the track if the label decide they don’t want it.
At least with your own productions you have a bigger chance of getting something signed. But then at the same time, remixes can be a little easier as you already have all the major parts, you then have something to work from and to get ideas from.
Maybe it swings both ways?
Remixes - easier to do but you have a smaller chance of getting it signed.
Originals - harder but you have a much bigger chance of getting it signed.
So I bring the question to you, remix competions, worth it or not?
To be honest, i’m really not sure i’ll bother with them again. I’ll keep on with originals or remixes of tunes that arn’t part of a competiton.
i say if you remixed it then release it!, f@&k what the label wants, people have been remixing and using illegal samples for years even if you just post up a link for your track dj’s will play it if its good.
sander van doorn got his break for an illegal boot of message in a bottle, that later got picked up by a bigger label.
prodigy went huge after sampling this
edit double post
Yeah I know the score with Sander, I think what he did was great, however it wasn’t part of a competition.
I think just remixing sh*t then sending them out is the best way, doing it as part of a competition only does one thing… creates more competition.
My reasons behind all this is because:
The beatportal competition for Black Eyed Peas has drum up over 1200 entries, it’s now down to how many ‘votes’ you can get, people are just creating fake accounts and voting themselves.
So not only are you losing to cheaters BUT your also competing against over 1200 people!
It’s totally put my friend off doing remix comps again as he entered it. Actually 2 friends have entered, check these out, they’re really good:
Audio Pimps:
http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/i-gotta-feeling-audio-pimps-mix
Brian Cheetham:
http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/bep-i-gotta-feelin-cheets-remix
Anyways I also did a remix lately for a record label comp, and I know it wasn’t a crap remix, and having listened to the 11 tracks that got put up on their website, mine was definately better than some of them, yet mine didnt go up and so I didn’t even get a chance to gather votes - i’d lost before i had even started! The whole thing just felt like a waste of time.
Valid reasons to thinking ‘remix COMPETITIONS’ are a farce?
Yeah I agree guys - there is a disheartening side to these competitions. The way I see it is that we get to work with quality samples to hone our skill for our own future tracks and in the meantime have a slight chance of being discovered. The record companies are taking advantage of this massive charge of ‘bedroom producers’ and get to choose from a plethora of mixes for free. I have entered the Black Eyed Peas comp and know I am up against it. The system is floored on many levels.
I have gone well in a couple of comps this year (even had 2 tracks released) but have never been awarded prizes. I ask -
HAS ANYONE AT SA OR KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS ACTUALLY WON PRIZES FROM THESE COMPS?
Also - Is there anything wrong with putting our mixes on blogs to at least get our mixes out there? We will not be earning any $$$$ and everyone gets more exposure.
[quote]rmallam (9/18/2009)[hr]
HAS ANYONE AT SA OR KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS ACTUALLY WON PRIZES FROM THESE COMPS?[/quote]
Well I won that Johnny Cash remix comp at Acidplanet last year. Won a copy of Sony Vegas Pro 8 ($400+), Acid Pro 7 ($299+), a slew of sample CDs (approx worth around $500+) and a Sony PS3 ($399). Then 2 weeks ago, I won another comp with cash prizes and a publishing contract. It was a small competition but it gained me some good PR and an opportunity to work with a tremendous singer. He already started sending me some of his old material for me to remix.
It’s about getting your name out there isn’t it. It really depends on how you look at these things. For me, it’s a way to build up some PR and get your name out there. Sort of like building up a resume.
Most of the competitions nowadays involve public voting. Public voting is always and forever will be flawed. I mean, most of the people voting are the ones who had entered and of course, do you really think they want to lose?
The Black Eyed Peas competition had such a massive turnaround (1200 sumthin entries) that public voting is not the way to go. The Beatport Staff will have 10 picks. But do they have the manpower hours to critically listen to all of them? I don’t think so. After listening to some of the entries that trickled in, I thought the only way to really get noticed was to be different from the rest. Seems like everybody went electro, progressive, trance, breaks on it. Different interpretations but all sounding the same. Same arrangement, same sounding hooks. Most of them just used the chorus line and left out the full vocals. Nothing really stands out. So I thought the best way to get noticed is to throw everybody a left hook and go for a genre that is not even listed on the Beatport genre list. Rock/Alternative/Pop, keeping it close to the original. But with enough changes, such as chord progression, to differ from it. I catered this mix for the judges and not to compete with everybody else. The last competition I won was closely judged my way coz I did the most simplest thing and that was to cater to the artist. Use the full vocals and enhance the song. Not to infuse your own “style”. Coz really, i’m not established enough to have my own “style”.
You can check out my entry here if you want.
[url]http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/i-gotta-feeling-frankieps-rockin-mix/[/url]
It may not knock your socks off but I think it’s different enough compared to everybody else to maybe slip on the cracks and get noticed.
And another thing, only do it if you have time to spare. Don’t do it if it interferes on your everyday work. It’s more rewarding that way. You’ll end up less disappointed.
Hey all, yeah I wasn’t even able to pitch my remix of Black Eyed Peas, was too late by two hours by the time I was done.
You can find my BEP - I Gotta Feeling (BigP Remix) in my tracks (128kbps):
[b][url=http://www.sonicacademy.com/site/Member-MyAccount.aspx?memberid=13415]http://www.sonicacademy.com/site/Member-MyAccount.aspx?memberid=13415[/url][/b]
Or at a better quality here (192kbps):
[b][url=http://www.mediafire.com/?mzkjtc1joyb]My Files
I agree with those who mentionned the voting method wasn’t the best approach to select the “lucky” top 10 winners for the contest. It’s true that on the other hand, if it was all left to the hands of the Beatport staff to listen to them, it’d be simply impossible, and quite honestly it’d get REALLY irritating to listen to the variations of the same damn lyrics over and over. I know I personally got sick of listening to the remixes, and even the original song (especially when some old-beat-up car with a rattling subwoofer drives-by with the tune cranked all the way up), maybe I’m not alone on this one.
But one key benefit to it, I think it gave extra experience for everyone to produce under time constraints, think creatively, and get a chance to share it with the world. It’s a great way to also fine-tune your workflow, gets you thinking more about what you should use in your next production, how to be different from the rest, how you can fit your own “signature” in there somewhere.
I think contests are a good thing all in all. I made my remix of I got a feeling also and even though I missed the date to submit it I feel like I learned a lot as a beginning producer. Also the thought of getting your name out there, the possibility of winning, comparing your mix to others. All good things. The methods of winning these contest are not always fair. For example on the beatport contest you vote by spinning the record on the song for a vote. On some of the top rated mixes there are say 400 spins and it has only been listened to 300 times , how does that make sense? Are people voting on names? Also I gotta say good job on your remix frankie it’s alot better than the majority of the ones I listened to. When I first checked out the rankings the first place entry put the full unchopped vocals in the wrong starting point ignoring the 8 count. It sounded like sh$t! How can that be be in first place?Alright im done.somebody give me some feedback on my remix on the general discussion page. Even if you think it sucks i still would like to hear why. You learn more from your failures sometimes than victories.
haha… came in third place in the Johnny Fiasco Remix Contest!
[url]http://www.remixin.com/contests/fiasco/winners[/url]:w00t:
in my opinion remix competitions are just another way for training and nothing more… you cannot expect to win since most of voting proccedures are easy to be cheated by spammers.
my latest release (https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/home/detail/1/beatport#app=c945&a486-index=8) has been a remix to a great Japanese upcoming artist, Imugem Orihasam. Since i ve been admirer of his work, i just contact him and asked him to make a remix for one of his tracks.
original track together with 6 rmxs has been signed and released easilly and without expecting spammers to vote me
I totally agree on the practise front. I tend to kinda forget about the will I win or not part, and just use it as a chance to work with something I wouldn’t have produced myself which is great for creativity.
The fact that it’s a competition just makes it mildly exciting for a week or two 
I fully agree about the practice aspect, and having professional parts to work with is good fun. It’s also great making remixes of known tracks as people have something to compair to.
I just don’t know whether i agree on ‘compettions’, i love remixing, I’d just rather do it when it’s not part of a ‘competition’.
[quote]frankiep (9/23/2009)[hr]haha… came in third place in the Johnny Fiasco Remix Contest!
[url]http://www.remixin.com/contests/fiasco/winners[/url]:w00t:[/quote]
Thats a nice remix bruv!