GENERAL RULES
GENERAL RULES
Each entry submitted must be contestant's own original work, unpublished and shall not infringe any copyrights or any other rights of any third parties. (music and lyrics) and must not be AI generated.
An individual may submit up to two songs and at least one must be a collaboration.
The entrant can be aged from 7 years old to 107 years old and may enter as long as their paid job is not songwriting, or they do not earn half of their salary from songwriting.
For children under the age of 16 each entry must be made by on-line form and must be submitted by a responsible adult through the entrant’s school (Teacher), recognised youth club or organisation (Youth Club or Organisation Leader), or Parent. In the case of home tutored pupils, through a parent. Entries must include the full address and telephone number of the responsible adult for verification. All entrants must complete the entry form which will be available from 1st March on this website.
The responsible adult should ensure they have read and understood the rules of the competition and that they have full permission from the songwriter or songwriters, in the case of co-authored material, concerning the copyright and publicity requirements of the competition. Where a song is selected for judging in the Top 12 songs, these permissions will be required to be submitted to the organisers within 5 working days of selection. Failure to provide signed permissions will render the entry disqualified and replaced by the song receiving the next highest number of votes in the region concerned. (A form will be available to download from the competition website to ensure entries can be validated quickly following selection in the Top 12)
Songwriters and performers of the winning songs will assign their rights to the recorded material submitted to the ‘Lets Make Music’ for the period from the closing date of the competition to the 31st December of 2026, after which full ownership and copyrights will be restored to the entrants.
Studio recordings of the Top songs with professional musicians will remain the property of Let’s Make Music.
Entry in the Let’s Make Music constitutes permission to use winners names, likenesses, recordings, videos and voices for promotional and publicity purposes on The Let’s Make Music websites and on other third party websites and in publicity and promotional materials and press releases.
By participating in the contest entrants agree to be bound by these rules and by any subsequent published revisions of these rules and by the decisions of The Lets Make Music competition which are final in all matters relating to the contest.
The right is reserved to cancel the competition at any stage or amend any of the terms or details of the Prizes if necessary.
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The Judges decisions in all cases will be final.
SONG SUBMISSION
This is a songwriting competition and entries must have both lyrics and music. Instrumental entries will not be allowed.
Songs may have multiple co-writers; however, co-authorship or co-publishing agreement will be the responsibility of the entrants.
The song can be sung and performed by any person chosen by the songwriter, Any samples used in the recording must be copyright free to allow for broadcasting over the web or for sale by download or physical CD.
The preferred method of submission of each song will be by electronic means, uploaded in MP3 format, and no longer than 5 minutes, to a designated website/email address. (Where written lyrics are required, these will be requested by the organisers.)
Prior to the electronic posting of any song, a fully completed on-line Entry Form must have been submitted by the responsible adult in accordance with Section 4 of these rules.
Let’s Make Music cannot be held responsible for entries lost in the system
Schools may hire equipment to record, edit and produce their entries but not employ professionals in the field, although advice may be sought from professionals.
It is the entrant’s responsibility to check that all recordings are playing correctly, before submitting their work. If faulty non playing recordings are submitted the entry will be void. Entrants will be informed of void entries and will be given the chance to re-submit their recording of the song.
JUDGING
Songs will be judged on composition, lyrics, melody, and originality (this can be any genre of music) by a panel of judges comprising the organisers and music industry professionals.
The quality of performance and production is not a consideration, however, please bear in mind that songs will be broadcast to the public, and eventually may be submitted to the Celebrity Judges, therefore it may be in your interest to make the recording as ‘appealing’ as possible!
The top 12 songs will be selected to go forward to the Celebrity judges, A further 2 songs may be chosen as “wild card” entries by the panel of judges. The Top 14 songs will then be presented to the Celebrity Judges, who will determine the Top 2 songs, one from each category.
The top songs will then be recorded and produced with professional musicians at a local recording studio. Whilst every effort will be made to ensure that artists and songwriters/performers will record together, it is possible that schedules may mean that artists record at different times from the recording session. (Individuals will be responsible for making their own way to and from the recording studio).
The top recorded singles will be released through social media and for download.