No More Secrets No More Lies Final Mix w Loralee MP3 WFH LC 102512

Katie Sue Final Mix w truck Noises MP3 23oct12

The first song I listed on song-selling sites, “Nature’s Symphony” so far has had digital distribution via Spotify, Xbox Music, and Muve Music. It was co-written with Kevin Harris. Peter Johnson was the photographer for the song artwork.

I’d love to list more of my songs on the online song-selling sites, but I lack the required photos or artwork for each that captures the spirit of each song that I can use to list, market, and sell them, so I’ve decided to try an experiment: Two Photo Contests!

Winners will receive $25, photo attribution on the song listing, their photo getting shown at least once and probably multiple times on my blog over time, and perhaps most importantly, that warm and fuzzy feeling that can come from helping someone. In return, I will get the rights to use the image to market, sell, and list that song and any album or song compilation that includes that song.

I’ve included links to the two songs for this contest so that you can listen to them to get your creative juices flowing. The songs are:

“No More Secrets/No More Lies” co-written by Denis Loiseau.
“Katie Sue” co-written by Bryan Cummings.

I plan to post with attibution all or most of the images sent to me by contestants.

Special note to amateur photographers, illustrators, artists: I’d love to see what you come up with too. Don’t let the technical jargon in the song-selling sites rules throw you. I used an iPad to take the photo of my dog Duke for “My Old Friend” and the song-writing sites accepted it, so if your photo is the contest winner and they accept it, I will still be able to use it. Unfortunately, if they don’t, I won’t.

I’m not big on rules, but the song-listing sites are, and unfortunately if I want to be able to use the photos for my songs, the photos need to comply with their rules:

“Your cover art must be:
• 1400 x 1400 pixels
• JPG file type
• 72 – 300dpi (300dpi is the best)
• Less than 25mb
• RGB color scheme (not CMYK)
• Unique to this particular title. We cannot accept artwork that has been used for another title.
You may NOT upload artwork that displays the following:
• Website URL
• Contact information (i.e., email address, phone number)
• Pornographic images
• Pricing information
• Copyrighted images
• Scan of a CD (must be retail-ready artwork)
• Blurry or pixelated images”

If the images involve one or more people, I’d need a written release from each that gives to me the rights to use their image to market, sell, and list that song, and any album or song compilation that includes that song, and that they understand that they will receive no compensation for from me at any time for same.

I need to have the photos or artwork be transmitted to me electronically in a way that I can easily open, download, and use them.

If these two contests are successful, I may do a few more for additional songs.

Deadline: Noon Sunday March 17, 2013 Pacific Time. I may extend the deadline if a winner hasn’t been identified by then.
I’m an amateur and complete novice with all of this, so you are welcome to make suggestions as to every aspect of this contest. I can use all the help I can get.

Please send all contest submissions and questions to russtowne@yahoo.com and identify which song(s) the photos/artwork is for.

Thank you!
Russ