Hosting a remix contest on Audius is a fantastic way to engage your audience, promote a focus track, and discover new talent. Here are some tips to make hosting a remix contest easy and effective.
The Basics of a Successful Remix Contest
- Clear Rules and Guidelines: Make sure the rules are clear and accessible. Select "Host a Remix Contest" on your track, state how the submissions will be judged, what the prize will be, and set the deadline for submissions. A countdown timer and deadline should be visible on your track upload.
- Provide Beats, or Stems: Provide up to 200 lossless stems or elements of your track to participants. This ensures everyone has what they need to create a remix.
- Promotion: Actively promote your contest on Audius and across social media.
- Prizes and Incentives: Offer appealing prizes to attract more participants. Consider cash prizes, gear, plugins, merch, autographs, meet & greets, and tickets to encourage participation.
- Community Engagement: Engage with participants throughout the contest. Like and repost early submissions, announce listening parties or feedback sessions in Discord, and keep the excitement going.
How To Host A Remix Contest
When uploading a track, you’ll notice an option to add stems.
Other artists will be able to download the stems, so be sure to incorporate all the individual elements (vox, bass, synths, etc.) and tag them as necessary. After your release is uploaded, make sure you slick the three little dots on your track and select "Host a Remix Contest" to make it official!
You'll be prompted to enter the contest launch date and remix submission deadline which will appear on your track's contest page for fans as a countdown timer.
Did you know you can shoutout your favorite remixes on Audius? You’ll notice that a pink check mark in the bottom right is marking a remix as ‘Co-Signed.' This means that the artist gave it a stamp of approval either in the form of a like or a repost. Not all co-signed remixes receive a prize or official release, but it’s a great way to show your community social signal that their hard work is appreciated.
Why Host a Remix Contest?
As an artist hosting a remix contest, you get to:
Hear your original work re-interpreted in a diversity of styles, sounds, and genres.
In addition to the artists within your own reach, the Audius community is filled with incredibly talented artists from all over the musical universe that can show you what your work sounds like from different perspectives and across musical languages.
Open up creative new connections.
Find new collaborators and creative relationships from those who submitted and got your attention in a context that’s already highly self-selected.
Deepen existing creative relationships.
Invite friends to come blow you away with their take on your track and build a shared body of work (and memories!) together.
Have your work presented to a much larger audience.
The audience on a remix contest is the combined respective audiences of all those who submit to your remix contest. If you have 20 submissions by artists who each have an average of 500 followers - that’s a combined 10,000 potential organic reach!
These items alone are a few ways that remix contests can give you release a longer shelf life. What’s to lose?
Joining a Remix Contest
As an artist, you can easily join a remix contest or link a remix to an existing track by either tagging it as "Remix" or by uploading your remix directly on to the track's contest page. First things first, make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules and click "Download All" to get the stems before you create your remix!
When uploading a track, clicking this field will prompt you to paste a link to the track being remixed.
Alternatively, go right to the track page and click the "Upload Your Remix" button. It's that easy!
Best Practices for Promoting Your Remix Contest
- Use Social Assets: Utilize a variety of social content, such as teasers, announcement videos, beat breakdowns, and remix reactions, to promote your contest.
- Direct Communication: Keep in touch with your fans and participants through all available channels, ensuring they're aware of the contest and its progress.
- Leverage Audius Features: Collaborate with Audius for additional promotional opportunities. Audius often highlights remix contests on their platform, increasing visibility and participation.
Example of a Successful Remix Contest: Sable Valley’s Approach
Sable Valley successfully ran a remix contest on Audius by leveraging the following strategies:
- Multi-Platform Promotion: They promoted the contest not only on Audius but also across other social media platforms, reaching a wider audience.
- Exclusive Prizes: Offered exclusive prizes such as gear, official releases, and collaborations, which attracted high-quality submissions from talented producers.
- Community Involvement: Engaged with the community through reposts, comments, and feedback sessions, creating a dynamic and interactive contest atmosphere.
- Post-Contest Promotion: Highlighted winners and notable entries across their channels, giving participants additional exposure.
