How many entries does the "average" songwriting competition get?  If
there's no such thing as "average" than please give examples of a few
with a first place prize of 1000-3000, or whatever would be considered
an average first place prize.

What is the entry fee for the "average" competition?

How much time is there on "average" between when a competition is
announced and the deadline?

Opinion: What percentage of competitions allow online mp3 submissions?

Is the typical competition for completed songs, , instrumental music
only, lyrics only, a combination?

thanks

hi 1troll:

Thanks for the interesting question. I wasn't able to find any
*pre-calculated* statistics for average values for songwriting
contests. However, I have researched 7 competitions found on the
following pages and pulled out the needed information for each. I only
used competitions that were still running and that had a decent
website with information available.

 
The ASCAP Resource Guide - SONGWRITING COMPETITIONS
URL: http://www.ascap.com/resource/resource-10.html

Vocalist - Songwriting Competitions
URL: http://www.vocalist.org.uk/songwriting_competitions.html

COMPETITIONS
************

American Songwriter
URL: http://www.americansongwriter.com/lyriccontest.htm
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: $1500
Entry Fee: $10/song
Time Between Announcement and Closing: n/a
mp3?: n/a
For: Lyrics only

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest
URL: http://www.jlsc.com/
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: $25500
Entry Fee: $30/song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 5 months
mp3?: Yes
For: Combinations of lyrics/music

GREAT AMERICAN SONG CONTEST
URL: http://www.greatamericansong.com/
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: $1300
Entry Fee: $25/song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 7+ months
mp3?: Yes
For: Combinations of lyrics/music

NSAI SONGWRITING CONTEST 
URL: http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/news.ez?viewLink=51&Form.sess_id=1223722&Form.sess_key=1115390656
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: $20000+
Entry Fee: $40/first song, $15/each other song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 4 months
mp3?: Yes
For: lyrics + music

Mid Atlantic Song Contest
URL: http://saw.org/saw/masc.asp
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: ~$1400
Entry Fee: $21/song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: ~5 months
mp3?: Yes
For: lyrics + music

THE USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION
URL: http://www.songwriting.net/
# Entries: 30000+
First Place Prize Value: $50000 
Entry Fee: $30/song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: ~5 months
mp3?: Yes
For: Combinations of lyrics/music

Cooch Music's 8th Amateur Songwriting Contest
URL: http://www.coochmusic.com/press.htm
# Entries: n/a
First Place Prize Value: ~$1500 
Entry Fee: $15/song
Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 10 months
mp3?: Yes
For: Combinations of lyrics/music
*****************

Given these figures, I would say that there are two *distinct*
categories of songwriting competitions, each with their own average
values:

Category 1: The BIG Contests
Average # Entries: 10s of thousands
Average First Place Prize Value: $25,000 - $50,000 (cash and non-cash
prize components)
Average Entry Fee: $35/song
Average Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 5 months
mp3?: Yes
For: Combinations of lyrics/music

Category 1: The SMALL Contests
Average # Entries: hard to say - less than 5000???
Average First Place Prize Value: $1400 (mostly non-cash prize components)
Average Entry Fee: $20/song
Average Time Between Contest Opening and Closing: 7 months
mp3?: Yes
For: varies - no "average" value

Of course, these "average" are not statistically rock-solid - it is a
very small sample space to work with. However, I think that the trends
I noticed *are* valid.

Search Strategy (on Google):
* "songwriting competitions"
* THE JOHN LENNON SONGWRITING CONTEST
* AMERICAN SONGWRITER MAGAZINE'S LYRIC WRITING CONTEST 
* MID-ATLANTIC SONG CONTEST

I hope this helps!

websearcher