Able Artist Foundation | AAF 2021 Music Contest

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AAF 2021 Music Contest

Submissions are now closed.

Submissions are now closed for AAF 2021 Music Contest.

However we encourage to you register an account to enter other available and future opportunties. You do not need to be on government assistance to register. Each contest or grant has individual requirements in this area.

Submissions Open: 12:00 a.m. CST (GMT -5)

Submission Deadline: 11:59 p.m. CST (GMT -5)

Winners Announced: 03:00 p.m. CST (GMT -5)

Minimum Age to Enter: None

Maximum Age to Enter: None

Open to: AAF Members Only

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT!

Anyone (U.S. and international) with a verifiable disability who is not able to sustain a dignified financial standard of living with writing music is welcome to submit two tracks in the following categories:

Advertising
All-genres

You can write one track for each category or two tracks within one category.

Here’s our YouTube announcement video:

Grand Prizes

There will be two grand prize winners this year. Each winner will receive a single library of their choice from 21 contest participating AAF partners! And each category will have a ‘Top Ten’ list that will be reviewed by returning licensing partner, Hitlist Music, for onboarding consideration. Our library contest partners are as follows (in alphabetical order):

Aaron Venture
Audible Genius
Audio Imperia
Embertone
Impact Soundworks
Orange Tree Samples
Orchestral Tools
Q Up Arts
Rast Sound
Realitone
Red Room Audio
Sonible
Sonokinetic
Soundiron
Spitfire Audio
Sudden Audio
Synthogy
The Unfinished
Thinkspace Education
VST Buzz
Write Vault

Qualifications

Have a verifiable disability
Be 18 or older
Be early to mid-career
Submit music currently being written or written within the last couple years
You own 100% of the music (writer and publisher share)
Your contest entries are not in a library
Are open about your disability

Note: If you are already a registered member of AAF or submitted music and documents for last year’s contest, you do not need to provide proof of disability again. Members can submit through their dashboard, and for last year’s entrants who are not AAF members, sign up using the same email as last year. Otherwise, you may need to provide proof of disability again.

Rules

For submitting tracks for the ‘Advertising’ category:

Must be 30, 60, or 90 seconds long
Can be in any style
Should be reasonably well mixed

We recommend watching our interview with Christy Van House, CEO at Hitlist Music:

There are many guidelines and helpful suggestions that will increase your chances of winning the grand prize and having your music reviewed by Hitlist Music for onboarding consideration. Plus, the info Christy provides is flat out gold!

For submitting tracks for the ‘Any Genre’ category:

Should be between 2 and 4 minutes long
Should be reasonably well mixed

We also recommend watching our interview with film and tv picture editor Craig Tollis:

There are many guidelines and helpful suggestions that will increase your chances of winning the grand prize.

Three Rounds of Judging

Round 1: AAF board members review and identify two ‘Top Ten’ lists

Round 2: Judges from Soundiron, Orchestral Tools, and other professionals judge the ‘Top Ten’ lists

Round 3: Grammy-nominated artists Monte Moir, Alzie Ramsey, and other professionals judge the ‘Top Ten’ lists

Scores are added up to identify both grand prize winners.

Submission Requirements

Go to www.ableartist.org/contests to begin the submission process.
Provide proof of disability. This can be a doctor’s note, a doctor’s diagnosis, a school counselor’s letter confirming your disability, a copy of your federal benefits statement, your military form that indicates any percentage of disability, or something else. We’re flexible!
Tracks must be in the highest quality bitrate and in MP3 format
Label them in the following format: YOUR FULL NAME_CATEGORY_TRACK TITLE (For example, Dua Lipa_AllGenre_Levitating)