All applications will be submitted via an online form. Please read all application information for important details.
Contents
Important Dates
Priority application deadline:
November 1, 2024
(save $5 on your application fee)
Deadline for application:
November 15, 2024
Performance Date and Award Announcement:
Thursday, April 3, 2025 (finalists will be notified of their requested participation no later than January 15, 2025)
Application Fee
All applicants:
$30 if submitted by November 1
$35 if submitted after November 1
(submitted via Acceptd)
Strathmore is able to provide fee waivers for those who need financial support. Please email ebb@strathmore.org with a brief explanation of your situation to secure a waiver code.
Submissions
Adult Applicants (18 years of age or older): Applicants must submit three original songs.
Youth Applicants (17 years of age or younger): Applicants must submit two original songs.
All songs must have lyrics. Therefore, instrumental compositions are not accepted. All genres are accepted. Maximum song length is 5 minutes. If a song is longer than 5 minutes, please submit a 5-minute excerpt of the song.
Awards
Adult Category Grand Prize:
The adjudicated contest will award one talented songwriter a Grand Prize of $10,000. The Grand Prize Winner will also be awarded 25 hours of recording studio time and 2 hours of music business strategy consulting with Dave Mallen at Innovation Station Music in Annandale, VA. As one of the area's top Music Producers, Dave has a particular focus on song and artist development and will guide the contest winner through his highly personalized and collaborative approach to music creation.
Adult Category 2nd-place Winner:
The 2nd-place winner will receive a cash prize of $2,500 and a feature on Strathmore's marketing and social media platforms.
Adult Category Finalists:
All finalists will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a feature on Strathmore's marketing and social media platforms.
Youth Category Prize:
A young songwriter who is 17 or younger will also be honored with $2,500. (Please see alternate application form for Young Songwriter entries.)
Judging
The contest is a multi-staged, adjudicated competition. Jurors include professional artists, venue operators, booking agents, and music academia. The jury will review each submission in detail and provide ratings. Based on pre-determined criteria, the jury will pass along top songwriters to a second phase of the competition. In this second round, the judges select the finalists who will perform their original songs during a concert on Thursday, April 3, 2025 at the Music Center at Strathmore. Each finalist performs two of the songs they submitted for the competition. The Grand Prize Jury attends the concert to select the winners. The winning songwriter and young songwriter are announced at the close of the show.
Eligibility
- Adult Applicants: Songwriters who are 18 years of age or older and are permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, DC are invited to apply. Undergraduate students who are from the DMV but are currently out of state attending college out of state may apply using a family address and a photo/scan of a current student ID.
- Youth Applicants: Songwriters who are 17-years-old or younger and are permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, DC are eligible to enter under the Young Songwriter category (Young Songwriter entrants must be born on or after October 14, 2006. Please see separate application.).
- Applicants must be available to perform their original songs for a live audience at Strathmore on Thursday, April 3, 2025.
- Please see application to list an alternate performer if the songwriter is not also the singer.
- The names and addresses of all contributing writers must be included in the entry form. The entrant is responsible for dividing any prizes with co-writers as appropriate.
- A lyric sheet must be included for each song.
- Award winners are often recommended for community performance opportunities and may be contacted as future opportunities arise.
Restrictions
- All songwriters must be permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, DC. (See allowance above for DMV students studying out-of-state).
- Applicants must not have made more than $5,000 in publishing royalties in 2023 and 2024 combined.
- Entrants cannot be employed as a staff writer for a publishing company, nor have been paid for such services by a publishing company for the songs submitted in this application.
- All submissions must be original and the sole work of the writer(s) listed. Entries shall not infringe on any copyrights, trademarks, intellectual property rights or any other rights of a third party. Submissions that violate these terms will be immediately disqualified. Applicants shall save, indemnify and hold harmless Strathmore, and its respective agents, representatives, principals, employees, officers, and directors from and against claims inconsistent with these requirements. Strathmore, and its respective agents, representatives, principals, employees, officers, and directors shall not be held liable for any legal action that results from unlawful or restricted submissions.
- Songwriters must appear on only one application. Songwriters may not be listed on more than one submission, including as a co-writer.
- Current participants in Strathmore’s Artists in Residence Program are not eligible for this award. Graduates of Strathmore’s Artist in Residence Program may apply if they meet the remaining criteria. No affiliates or graduates of Strathmore’s Artist in Residence program will serve as judges.