Marcus Curtis
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So Much For That Contest
Today I got an email from cakewalk talking about entering a contest called Intel Superstars Competition. There was a great list of prizes and the only thing you had to do was upload a video that you made. So I set up an account with some third party vender, made a profile, accessed the contest website, and uploaded my video I made I made this video using Sonar X1 producer and the VS100. Finally after 2 or 3 hours I was done. I was looking through the rules and the fine print only to discover that the music video has got to have vocals to qualify. Well I am an instrumental artist. I don’t sing on my music videos. Some stuff is finger style acoustic guitar and some stuff is electric guitar. Anyway after a few hours of screwing around with this I discovered that I don’t qualify to enter. Thanks cakewalk for wasting my night. You should have been upfront about this. Why is it that instrumental artist always seem to be discriminated against? I suspect this is not just a contest to win some prize for promotional reasons but they are looking for people to market who want to “make it big” Someone they can make money off of. The music industry is great at destroying the art of music. That’s what I don’t like about it. This has always been my experience. Bottom line how much can you make for the men in suits and who cares how they butcher your song right? To be fair I should say that this is not a contest that Cakewalk is holding. They are merely a sponsor. They more than likely provide a portion of the prize. They may not even know of the rule restriction. I am not knocking the rule restriction, but this should have been something told up front and not hidden away in the fine print on some obscure page of the contest rules website. Had I known this up front I could have saved myself some time and done something else with my night.
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Jonbouy
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 02:55:05
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I don't generally enter competitions as I don't see music as a competitive sport. I've been watching the Voice UK recently and somehow it didn't seem right, sure there is clearly some talent there and the coaching offered by some big names is good. But the desperation in having to perform 'for your life' makes it impossible to ascertain which of these talents I'd enjoy outside of the bull ring. I suppose these things are good for raising your profile if that is what happens as a result, but it seems even that can 'backfire'. I did enter an instrumental in a contest recently to demonstrate the features of a particular virtual instrument, what I aimed for out of that was an increased knowledge of the particular instrument that outcome seemed worth entering for, I learned that I won second place and some sound library for my efforts too, which was surplus to my requirement so I never bothered picking it up. I'd already 'won' the prize I went for just taking part. Basically what I'm saying I'm careful what I enter for and will not enter unless the taking part is sufficient in itself for some reason. Did you gain anything from putting your entry together? That to my mind is the best thing normally to come out of these things. The discipline to pull something off to a deadline and to concieve, create and finish a project may be the best part of joining in. You did that. It's seems here the rules were laid out at the beginning and you didn't examine them carefully enough to notice the vocal requirement, there's a lesson in that for all of us.
"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves" - Banksy
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The Maillard Reaction
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 07:11:58
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"the music video has got to have vocals to qualify. Well I am an instrumental artist... I don’t qualify to enter. " :-) Do what I do; scream "I like Guacamole" repeatedly over the whole thing and post it on the web. :-)
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Guitarhacker
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 08:17:19
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Ahhh... still you may have not had a wasted night..... I'll bet you'll read the "small print" next time. This is a very handy habit when signing anything in the music business, or in life in general.
My website & music: www.herbhartley.com MC4/5/6/X1e.c, on a Custom DAW Focusrite Firewire Saffire Interface BMI/NSAI "Just as the blade chooses the warrior, so too, the song chooses the writer "
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guitarmikeh
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 08:43:43
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I agree with the others. In fact I think it's time well spent.
I harbor no ill will towards any man.
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Beagle
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 08:53:02
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Guitarhacker Ahhh... still you may have not had a wasted night..... I'll bet you'll read the "small print" next time. This is a very handy habit when signing anything in the music business, or in life in general. But isn't he saying that "the fine print" wasn't available to him until he submitted the entry? if that's truly the case then it's clearly a poorly implemented contest. All rules should be available in the invitation or at least should be available from the invitation to enter.
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Karyn
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 08:54:24
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I keep getting invites to great competitions with fantastic prizes. I spend hours thinking up a catchy hook line in less than twenty words. "I like Becan because..." Then I read the small print and it says "entry open to residents of the centre of the universe only, Brits keep out"
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Jonbouy
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 09:39:23
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Karyn Brits keep out" Take it as a complement, they have to give the other entrants a chance.
"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves" - Banksy
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Old55
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 09:45:13
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Of course it's not a waste of time. Now you have a brand-spankin' new video. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot--hey, who the hell are you guys? X2(X3 pending hardware upgrade), Emulator X2, E-mu 1212M, Virtual String Machine
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Jonbouy
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 09:59:15
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Beagle Guitarhacker Ahhh... still you may have not had a wasted night..... I'll bet you'll read the "small print" next time. This is a very handy habit when signing anything in the music business, or in life in general. But isn't he saying that "the fine print" wasn't available to him until he submitted the entry? if that's truly the case then it's clearly a poorly implemented contest. All rules should be available in the invitation or at least should be available from the invitation to enter. Rules are generally available at the launch of a contest, whether they are immediately apparent or not is another matter. I'd say a good lesson learned here is to make yourself aware of them before you do any work or if there aren't any available then it would certainly be a foolish move to enter a contest under those terms.
post edited by Jonbouy - 2012/05/22 10:00:27
"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves" - Banksy
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bayoubill
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 10:07:50
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I never get requests to join a competition.  But I like the song title "I like Guacamole"
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UbiquitousBubba
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 10:34:54
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I once had a mole that was named Guaca. It was very confusing in Mexican restaurants. People used to stare and whisper to one another. Eventually, I had it removed. Now, I know they're staring and whispering for different reasons.
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craigb
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 11:47:52
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Design your own contest in protest. Make it impossible for anyone but yourself to win. That'll teach 'em!
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:09:56
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But isn't he saying that "the fine print" wasn't available to him until he submitted the entry? if that's truly the case then it's clearly a poorly implemented contest. All rules should be available in the invitation or at least should be available from the invitation to enter.
Beagle that is exactly what I am saying. general contet came up. Then the rules came up after the sign up. Then after uploading the video another page came up saying instrumentals were not allowed. and that was hidden in the fine print. That is basically the thing that I found wrong. let's set aside the fact that they don't allow instrumentals which is stupid in itself and a whole other issue. The fact remains I recieved the contest via a cakewalk email which I normally trust being a big user of their products. I doubt Cakewalk is aware of this to their credit. One of the reasons for posting this is to serve as a warning to other people who recieved the same email. this is a poorly executed contest which serves to be frustrating and aggravating.
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Karyn
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:22:32
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You can always say it has vocals but they're mixed very quiet..
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bapu
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:28:09
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I could put vocals on it for you. You'd still lose.
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:28:55
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Jonbouy I don't generally enter competitions as I don't see music as a competitive sport. I've been watching the Voice UK recently and somehow it didn't seem right, sure there is clearly some talent there and the coaching offered by some big names is good. But the desperation in having to perform 'for your life' makes it impossible to ascertain which of these talents I'd enjoy outside of the bull ring. I suppose these things are good for raising your profile if that is what happens as a result, but it seems even that can 'backfire'. I did enter an instrumental in a contest recently to demonstrate the features of a particular virtual instrument, what I aimed for out of that was an increased knowledge of the particular instrument that outcome seemed worth entering for, I learned that I won second place and some sound library for my efforts too, which was surplus to my requirement so I never bothered picking it up. I'd already 'won' the prize I went for just taking part. Basically what I'm saying I'm careful what I enter for and will not enter unless the taking part is sufficient in itself for some reason. Did you gain anything from putting your entry together? That to my mind is the best thing normally to come out of these things. The discipline to pull something off to a deadline and to concieve, create and finish a project may be the best part of joining in. You did that. It's seems here the rules were laid out at the beginning and you didn't examine them carefully enough to notice the vocal requirement, there's a lesson in that for all of us. The vocal requirement was not laid out in the beginning. It was not on the rules and regulation page which I did read through. It just had things like families of employees are not eligible to win and basic legal stuff like that. I usually don’t enter these things. The only reason I did was because the event came in a Cakewalk email. I highly doubt at this point I will participate in any other events sponsored by Cakewalk. Your right about one thing. I did learn my lesson. The other reason I entered this was because I thought it was a contest that would be more about using cakewalk software to create videos and music. I was looking forward to an opportunity like that and to hear other entries as well. This was more about finding the next musician record companies can exploit and make money from. This could be why it was decietful
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57Gregy
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:33:39
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I would be happy to actually complete a song, regardless of the motivation for starting it. Instead I keep adding to my incomplete projects list.  That's just me, though.
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 12:38:50
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Karyn You can always say it has vocals but they're mixed very quiet.. ROFL now that was funny. I can laugh at this thing, hell i might as well laugh everyone else is lol. bad experiences make good stories right?
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spacey
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 14:05:51
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I've been buying Cake stuff since Guitar Studio 1 back in the '90's and they don't mail me anything. Not sure if that makes you feel any better but at least you had the chance to read it.
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Jonbouy
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 14:24:51
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Marcus Curtis Jonbouy I don't generally enter competitions as I don't see music as a competitive sport. I've been watching the Voice UK recently and somehow it didn't seem right, sure there is clearly some talent there and the coaching offered by some big names is good. But the desperation in having to perform 'for your life' makes it impossible to ascertain which of these talents I'd enjoy outside of the bull ring. I suppose these things are good for raising your profile if that is what happens as a result, but it seems even that can 'backfire'. I did enter an instrumental in a contest recently to demonstrate the features of a particular virtual instrument, what I aimed for out of that was an increased knowledge of the particular instrument that outcome seemed worth entering for, I learned that I won second place and some sound library for my efforts too, which was surplus to my requirement so I never bothered picking it up. I'd already 'won' the prize I went for just taking part. Basically what I'm saying I'm careful what I enter for and will not enter unless the taking part is sufficient in itself for some reason. Did you gain anything from putting your entry together? That to my mind is the best thing normally to come out of these things. The discipline to pull something off to a deadline and to concieve, create and finish a project may be the best part of joining in. You did that. It's seems here the rules were laid out at the beginning and you didn't examine them carefully enough to notice the vocal requirement, there's a lesson in that for all of us. The vocal requirement was not laid out in the beginning. It was not on the rules and regulation page which I did read through. It just had things like families of employees are not eligible to win and basic legal stuff like that. I usually don’t enter these things. The only reason I did was because the event came in a Cakewalk email. I highly doubt at this point I will participate in any other events sponsored by Cakewalk. Your right about one thing. I did learn my lesson. The other reason I entered this was because I thought it was a contest that would be more about using cakewalk software to create videos and music. I was looking forward to an opportunity like that and to hear other entries as well. This was more about finding the next musician record companies can exploit and make money from. This could be why it was decietful I feel your pain. As Karyn pointed out most of the contests that have appeared here to date have been for US entrants only. I don't bother looking at them anymore, I'm not even sure we found out the winners of the last one, but I'm prepared to concede that I may have missed the results of that. It does seem a bit limiting that you can't enter an instrumental albeit in a contest scenario tracks with vocals tend to gain the limelight.
post edited by Jonbouy - 2012/05/22 14:27:35
"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves" - Banksy
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SCorey
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/22 15:34:43
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Jonbouy ... I don't see music as a competitive sport. I must be doing something wrong. I always have to wrestle my music into submission. The very first time my wife heard me really swear up a storm was when I was working on an audio project. As for the OP's issue, that's the sort of thing I call "tuition". You pay tuition, you hopefully learn stuff.
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/23 03:15:56
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bayoubill I never get requests to join a competition. But I like the song title "I like Guacamole" You could call the song I like Guacamole but Guacamole does not like me. as an extra bonus you could make it a blues song.
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/23 03:20:00
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spacey I've been buying Cake stuff since Guitar Studio 1 back in the '90's and they don't mail me anything. Not sure if that makes you feel any better but at least you had the chance to read it. yeah me too I went to Pro audio 9 then started with the Sonar upgrades. Got the VS100 hardware too. pretty handy device. Tried other DAWS but Sonar seems to fit my needs the best
http://www.marcuscurtismusic.com/ Windows 10 ultimate, Sonar Platinum, AMD Phenom 2 x6 1075T processor 3.00 GHz, (6 cores) 8 gigs of Ram, Audio interfaces=VS-100, Pod X3 live pro, Boss GT-100, Boss GP10 Midi Controllers=Edirol PCR 800, roland GR-55. Ozone 7, Podfarm, Th2 Full Version, Melda, True Pianos Full Version, and a whole bunch of free VST plugins which can be found through my site.
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Marcus Curtis
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/24 04:13:44
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I thought I would supply an update to the contest scam because 1 I am bored and 2 I have nothing else to do at 3 in the morning when everyone else is sleeping. When I signed up for this contest I also created an account for a website called Our Stage. Here is a link. http://www.ourstage.com/ They seem to be the ones who run this thing. So yesterday I tried to cancel my account but they provide no way to cancel. That’s how desperate they are for members. The problem here is they have personal information about me because of the contest. So the first thing I did was change all the information in the profile boxes. Then I sent them an email in the help section asking them to cancel my account. Here is the exchange thus far. Email 1 Me-How the hell do I cancel this account and remove my copyright material. I do not wish to be a part of this website or particapate in any form or share any of my copyright material being displayed here. I signed up to enter a contest called Intel video superstars. Then after I signed up and uploaded a video I found out my video did not qualify for the contest. At the same time I signed up for the contest that information was shared here at this site and an account was generated. There is no way to cancel an account or remove copyright material that belongs to me. These are the most basic website functions that should be put into any website. Please remove my name and information and any material that belongs to me. Email 2 them- Hey, Thanks for getting in touch. Please reply to this email to confirm that you want us to deactivate your account, and we will fulfill your request. Since we are a public site that runs open contests, any items you entered to competition in our monthly contests will remain on display in our channel results archives. Email 3 me- There are a couple of problems you are not aware of so let me try and explain them to you. First I found out that my video does not qualify for your contest and does not meet the requirements. It has no vocals. The videos in the contest require vocals. I did not find out about this until after the upload. This should have been spelled out before I uploaded the video. I am an instrumental artist and i do not write music with vocals. I was screwing around with entering this thing for a couple hours only to discover that my video does not qualify. This is a poor way to run a contest. Since my video does not qualify then there should be no problem removing it because it is not competing. The video in question is one I made a few months back that is a theme song for my guitar lesson videos on you tube. It is copyright protected under the library of congress which is exactly where I registered it. The copyright claim ID on this video is CEYN3B. Since it is my property and since you have no use for it because it cannot compete let this serve as a formal request to remove my copyright material from your site. I cannot convey enough how frustrating it is to enter a contest and then not qualify for something as stupid as not having vocals on an instrumental tune. What gives with this stupid rule anyways? Who ever made this one up is a complete idiot! Leave it to the music industry to look for the next upcoming artist and throw away the next Joe Satriani, or Eric Johnson. Since my video does not qualify for your archives you don't need it. So I will ask one more time really nice. Please remove my video Advanced Guitar Lessons Theme song 1 from your site Thank You Marcus Curtis So here are the million dollar questions. Do you think they will remove my content or will I need to get a lawyer? Do you think I have a case if they refuse to remove my content?
http://www.marcuscurtismusic.com/ Windows 10 ultimate, Sonar Platinum, AMD Phenom 2 x6 1075T processor 3.00 GHz, (6 cores) 8 gigs of Ram, Audio interfaces=VS-100, Pod X3 live pro, Boss GT-100, Boss GP10 Midi Controllers=Edirol PCR 800, roland GR-55. Ozone 7, Podfarm, Th2 Full Version, Melda, True Pianos Full Version, and a whole bunch of free VST plugins which can be found through my site.
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craigb
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Re:So Much For That Contest
2012/05/24 05:04:23
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Their next reply... "Hey, thanks for contacting us again! Are you sure you want to deactivate your account? Just send us a video with vocals and we'll get right on it." (Nah, I think they'll get the message. If they're really that new they won't want any negative publicity.)
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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