You’ve entered a contest and submitted a killer remix – now what? In order to prevent any confusion, here’s an explanation of how the judging process works and what Voting is all about.
Popular Voting: Exposure is the key for music creators in today’s digital world. The purpose of voting is to help you promote your music and get it heard by a larger audience. For this reason, Indaba Music implemented voting through Facebook. It strengthens the power of the voting process utilizing Facebook credentials. The social media giant currently counts close to a billion users. Voting is akin to a “like” on Facebook: it shows and measures the response by the public and creates awareness of your track. Voting through Facebook maximizes your exposure. It assists in determining the Popular Vote Winner (formerly known as Honorable Mention).
The number of votes for a submission DOES NOT AFFECT the determination of the Grand Prize Winner(s).
Grand Prize Winner: Each opportunity’s Grand Prize Winner is actually chosen by the person or people listed under the “judges” section on the contest page. Every submission gets listened to and the judges choose the submissions that suit their purposes best.
In any case, always consult the Opportunity Terms for each contest you enter, since the rules might be adjusted to the particular opportunity’s demands.
Hi there,
All of a sudden i need a Facebook account to vote? Too bad then because i will never ever subscribe to FB, and i know i’m far from the only one of Indaba-members thinking alike. Not being able to vote takes away a lot of the fun to participate. I saw a guy named Seth from Indaba posting at the forums about this issue but his tone of voice and sheer disconcern about members like me are really putting me of. Hope you’ll soon find a solution for this problem, because if not i’m out. My loss.
Best regards,
Norbert aka HaveMercy
Two weeks ago I cancelled Facebook primarily due to ugly postings, many increasingly political in nature, but also due to conflicts between people surfacing in that forum. I also have privacy concerns. The company’s business model is turning out to be shaky, as evidenced by the recent stock debacle. In a survival mode, will additional inroads be made? It is troubling to see so many requirements to “like” something or to refer other people to Facebook pages as a threshold for participation in contests or forums. Things would have to change substantially for me to rejoin.
Hi Norbert and Joanna,
Yes, you need a Facebook account to vote. And I agree: Voting is a fun process and we encourage you to do it because by participating you’re optimizing your exposure in a playful way. First of all, I’d like to straighten one thing out: We ARE concerned about members like you, and for this reason I would like to further explain to you why we integrated voting into Facebook.
You’re asking us to find a solution for the problem. Fact is that Voting through Facebook already IS the solution to the problem. In the past we received continuous complains about voter fraud, which was happening through our sight. Since Facebook has rigorous privacy settings, voter fraud is practically impossible now. It has become a lot fairer for everybody.
Indaba Music’s goal is to further and support musical talent, provide you with opportunities and help you with your musical careers. We’re constantly thinking about how to create opportunities for your success, help you develop your artistry and increase your exposure. Instead of saying: “Facebook sucks.” we were asking: “What is good about Facebook? How can we take advantage of its features to help our members?” So, what is good about Facebook? – It has almost a billion users! Man, this is your chance: Put your music out there, so people can hear it, discover you, love your work and become your fan. We’re helping you with it by expanding our Voting system to FB. My point is not about whether FB is cool or not. I’m encouraging you to see and grab your opportunities.
If you want, set up a FB account with a false address if you’re afraid of privacy issues, it’s up to you. Or you decide to just have fun on the site remixing, participating in contests, learn from others and contribute within the Indaba Music community. That’s great. But if you want to boost your career (and this works through exposure), you should take your tracks to where everybody can hear them. Your choice.
I DO like that Indaba is making efforts to reduce vote fraud, this is a good thing to be sure, but just on my last remix I had SEVENTEEN friends tell me they wouldn’t be voting for my mix because indaba asks for permissions… the older system of e-mail based votes worked much better for those individuals who prefer not to have their account linked to any apps, games, or external websites…
Again, I’m not complaining here, since the major judging has nothing to do with popular vote I’ve got no room to argue your new system, this IS an issue though, perhaps a second form of voting which requires the e-mail, a full name, and birthdate?
This is just my 2 cents, but the facebook exclusivity seems to be putting QUITE a few potential votes in the wastebasket.
Hi Matthew. I understand your concerns. However, you can tell your friends that they don’t have to accept these permissions. You can just x them out and still submit a vote.
Also thank you for sharing your ideas and offer an alternative. I fear that a second form of voting would make the process too complicated, re-enable the possibility of vote fraud and does not serve the purpose of exponentially increase exposure for our members’ music. One single vote will automatically spread the word about your track to many more people on use FB.
Hope this helps.
This is nice and we all are happy
I hope we participants get some info from judges why they selected something (5 highlights is enough), to be able to learn from every competition something to make our mix better. Before that we can only guess weird things, like ARE THEY REALLY LISTENING MY MIX AT ALL??? In BIG contests they really don’t – have the time to listen all…believe or not…just counting minutes how long this message is in…
You got a point there, King Bush/Timo2. Inspiring comment. Often times there are already indications of what judges look for in the description and Opportunity Terms. An example: The Brian Culbertson contest looked for a Progressive House and a Deep House Remix – this is a pretty clear description. Sometimes a client gets a better idea of what they want once they listen through the submissions. As a rule of thumb I’d say: If you meet the requirements of the opportunity and submit high quality work, you have a very good shot.
I can guarantee you that all submissions get heard. Including big contests. Yesterday, the Bon Iver opportunity ended, one of the biggest we’ve run so far. And things will be crazy here at IndabaHQ, because we ARE making sure that all submissions will be listened to. So, no worries.
We’re glad to have you guys on board. Thanks for all the comments. We are learning a lot ourselves from your feedback.
Peace. T
I agree with all the Timos, personally I’m primarily interested in the selection by the judges – as much as appreciation from the Indaba community is also worth alot. I feel the potential to gain fans by a few Facebook posts when people vote really does pale into insignificance when compared to the exposure gained by being selected by the artist requesting the remix. The suggestion from Timo2 to have a brief few points as to why the winning mix/mixes were selected would be hugely valuable to those who were unsuccessful.
Thanks for a great site and some very inspiring competitions.
You see, this is why i don’t take the website seriously now, i can’t stand this rubbish being passed off on users. All you are saying is that you have commercialised the site, meaning that it is no longer a true behind the doors industry connection, but a commercial popular free for all “blah blah blahs got talent”.
“The purpose of voting is to help you promote your music and get it heard by a larger audience”
- NO. The purpose of your website is (or was) for producers to connect to Artists, Labels, publishers and other Oppurtunities, and for producers to be judged BY THEM … NOT YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS. If people wanna show their friends their remixes, they don’t need indaba for that.
“It strengthens the power of the voting process utilizing Facebook credentials”
- NO. You call it “Popular voting”, in other words what your saying yourself is it’s a Popularity Contest, not a Musical one. Do you honestly think my friends are going to vote for the other guys music (even if it’s better) when i post asking them to vote for my remix? Ridiculous to assume that. Or then again, i could just go and use a Facebook bot, and spam my remixes to high heaven, as a few Indaba users seem to be doing…
“Every submission gets listened to and the judges choose the submissions that suit their purposes best.”
- This is just not true. The Put the Light On contest for starters but its blindingly obvious with most.
If something isnt done soon to restore the site back to a true musician-producer-artist-label connection then i look forward to a new site cropping up giving back the value of that industry connection. They will see a returning subscriber. Unfortunately it seems the Indaba team have sold out to gain a few more traffic hits.
To further Will’s point, let me add this:
“We’re helping you with it by expanding our Voting system to FB.”
No, you’re RESTRICTING
Sorry, hit the wrong key. So, I was saying:
No, you’re RESTRICTING your voting system to Facebook, since us Facebook boycotters are not allowed to vote anymore. And instead of asking “What is good about Facebook?” you should ask “What is BAD about Facebook?”
“If you want, set up a FB account with a false address if you’re afraid of privacy issues.”
Is this a joke? We are artists, do you really expect us to set up our profiles with false contact info? Very convenient… That would be a solution for the average person but certainly not for an artist.
What Indaba needs to do in the first place is dissociating ALL prizes from public votes. Facebook only makes things worse, this heresy was already there prior to your FB craze. Honorable mentions reward PR, not talent as they should. You can keep the voting system for the fun of it and the exposure, but all prizes must be awarded by the judges.
Hey guys,
thanks for commenting. I think it’s good that this discussion is taking place. And I understand your points of view and I’m certainly not the type of guy who, in general, is a huge FB promoter or fan. Not at all. FB has its goods and its bads. That doesn’t really matter here now. Most of our members are very active FB members. And for them (you!) it is a lot easier now to share your music to the world. If you don’t want to participate in this area of the site, no problem, just don’t do it. If you only want to focus on getting your music heard by people from the music industry, officials from labels and brands or other judges, that’s totally cool. This feature hasn’t changed at all. Submit to contests and the Licensing Catalog and invest your energy there. Totally cool!
The music industry has changed a lot. We are located in Manhattan in New York City and we’re witnessing all these changes in a very concentrated form, first hand. Our staff has a lot of experience in the music industry and we are trying to adapt, shape and design this opportunity marketplace the best way possible to meet the reality of the industry. We do this so we can increase and improve opportunities for you guys!
There are some major possibilities you don’t seem to value (which is fine): Exposure is crucial! And that’s what the Popular Vote is all about. Nothing more. @ ?uestion Mark: It’s not about the prizes, they are small. It’s about how many people get your music heard and you can start acquiring a serious fan base. Through FB you can expose your music to millions of more people. Since we launched voting through FB, the plays of our members’ tracks have DRASTICALLY risen. It’s crazy, in a good way.
The other major reason is that we are now preventing voter fraud, which was widely practitioned before. Thanks to the way FB is set up, voting fraud has practically become impossible now and the voting process has become fairer.
?uestion Mark, you said: “We are artists, do you really expect us to set up our profiles with false contact info? Very convenient… That would be a solution for the average person but certainly not for an artist.”→ I don’t understand. First, you’re saying you don’t want to be on FB and then you imply that you want to share your private info on FB? I’m saying you are supposed to give out false information. That was a suggestion if you are terrified of privacy issues. Everybody handles it his or her way. I am a professional musician and I gave FB my spam email adress, eg. I’m still doing well professionally. I just threw that idea out there…
@ Will: You are lamenting that Indaba has gotten rid of the musician-producer-artist-label connection. This is false. It has extended to a musician-producer-artist-label-fan base model. Plus, we have more and more musicians, more producers, more artists and label connections going.
I totally understand your concerns. You seem to think Indaba has become more “corporate”. The truth, however is, we are working hard on ameliorating, expanding and intensifying the possibilities for you, our users. That is also why I highly appreciate your thoughts and comments and why I’m trying my best to explain to you our decisions and steps.
Hope this helps.
Timo
Good Blog’
All I see here is begging.
“Please vote for me” “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me”.
FB is an embarrassment to these contests and lowers the level of this site and to the music business in general. FB best years are behind it. A kid in the 7 grade will win if he/she gets their FB friends to vote for what, not the song. Success has nothing to do with the song or the ability of the Remix talent from this. What a joke and what a false sense of recognition. Dilution of grandeur in the worst example.