We did it! We turned our website into a radio show! In our first episode we ask producer/songwriter Justin Gray what it takes to make a hit single these days, and what kind of gear and techniques he uses in the studio. Also on this episode: Why we Created HomeGrownHits.com, Tony and Jim’s Song Picks of the Week, and our sometimes opinionated countdown of the Top Ten songs on the site. (Recorded May 14, 2012)
Summer is on its way (at least for those of us in the North), and what goes with the sun and fun, but the summer hit single! To celebrate the summer solstice and encourage the next Home Grown Summer Hit, we have partnered once again with ESP Guitars, whose well-constructed axes will add power and attitude to anyone’s sound. And we welcome aboard Blue Microphones, whose great-sounding mic’s and classic design are the envy of all home recording artists.
Here’s what you get if your song makes it to the top of the charts by the end of the contest:
The contest winner will be announced on the first day of summer: June 20 on HomeGrownHits.com.
Here’s how to enter:
” icon on the left hand side of your song.
We’ve just made it easier to listen to music and rate songs! When you’re playing a song on the site, and want to rate it (or any song on the page), the song won’t get interrupted anymore by the page reload. Click on the star rating you want. The HomeGrownHits Charts will readjust the numerical ranking of all songs in real time, without needing to reload the page, while your song continues to play. Try it!
(If you want to see the songs in order of their position in the Charts, though, you will need to reload.)
We’re gearing up for our next contest. This one is going to be big! Keep your eyes on the site early next week for the announcement…
Last night we bestowed the ESP EC-1000 Guitar and Avid Pro Tools/M-Box on Julian Shah-Tayler and Chris Lopez from The Singularity, whose song “Talking in Your Sleep” made top of the Charts in our ESP-AVID “Kick-AS(CAP)” Song Contest! They showed us their home studio, where they were working on their latest recordings. Chris indulged us by playing the lead-in chords to “Talking in Your Sleep” on his new ESP guitar, and Tony performed lead vocals (emphasis on “performed”). To see the hilarity, play the video.
Thanks to ESP Guitars and Avid for donating the awesome gear and sponsoring this hugely successful contest. And thanks to all the songwriters and musicians for their amazing songs that have made the Charts so dynamic and rich. And, of course, thanks to all the listeners and fans who rated the songs and ensured that the best rises to the top.
After extremely intense competition by some truly remarkable artists, the bouncy, hopping tour-de-force “Talking in Your Sleep” by the LA-based The Singularity has earned them the ESP EC-1000 guitar, plus the Avid Pro Tools/M-Box rig! Huge congratulations to them.
We’re writing this from the ASCAP “I Create Music” Expo, minutes away from announcing the winner in front of a packed grand ballroom at the Hollywood Renaissance, so we gotta go.
Stay tuned for our next contest…
Well, we said our next song contest would be bigger and better. We think you’ll agree that a brand new ESP Guitar plus an Avid Pro Tools/M-Box bundle qualify!
HomeGrownHits.com will be making its presence known at the ASCAP “I Create Music” Expo 2012 (April 19-21 2012) with our first ever exhibit (come see us at the 2nd Floor Exhibit Area). To help make the event special, we have partnered with ESP Guitars and Avid to produce a “Kick-ASCAP” song contest. Whoever’s song is at the top of the contest Charts at the end of the Expo (April 21) wins:
To enter the contest, you need to upload a new song between now and April 21 and enter the Contest Code “ESP-AVID” on the first page of the upload form. Whoever’s song is at the top of the contest Charts at the end of the contest wins the ESP guitar, the M-Box, and Pro Tools 10! Check out the contest page for more details.
We have created a special algorithm by which the very best (and most current) songs rise to the top of the Charts. The algorithm is described on our “About Us” page. Simply put, a song will rise up the charts if it is:
It will move down the Charts if the opposite of any of these is true. Your votes count. Please vote as honestly as you can (see our “About Us” page for some tips on voting), and on as many songs as you can. (If you vote a lot, we reward you by giving your votes more weight than those listeners who only rate a few songs.)
This contest is over, and the winner is The Singularity with “Talking in Your Sleep”.
Huge congratulations to Half Hour City, whose homegrown hit “The Season” topped the charts out of 69 total songs uploaded for our first contest, “Free Gear for Leap Year”. At 7PM Pacific on February 29, the contest ended and Half Hour City’s nicely crafted tune has earned them the prize, a M-Audio MXL Monitor and Mic Package.
We had some amazing songs uploaded. It constantly blows us away what people are recording in their home studios.
Big thanks go to all the artists who uploaded songs and listeners who rated them, helping to make our first contest a success. If you haven’t listened to these tunes – check them out now. The contest may be over, but the songs will always be a part of HomeGrown Hits!
(We’ve got something very cool up our sleeves.) Stay tuned!
We’ve been quiet for the past few months, but we’re back to celebrate the opening of the NAMM show with a new feature on the HomeGrownHits.com website: contests!
Our first contest is “Free Gear for Leap Year”, in which we are giving away a brand new $170 M-Audio MXL Monitor and Mic package! How do you win? Simply upload a new song between now and February 29 and use the Contest Code “LEAPGEAR”. Whoever’s song is at the top of the contest charts at the end of the contest wins the gear. Check out this page for more details.
It’s simple. To enter a contest, you need to enter a Contest Code when you upload your song. For our “Free Gear for Leap Year” contest, we’ve made it easy and posted the Code (LEAPGEAR), because we want everyone to be able to enter. If you enter a contest, your song is not treated any differently on the charts than songs that are not part of the contest. Everybody can listen to your song, and all registered HomeGrownHits.com members can rate it, and it will go up and down the main and genre charts accordingly.
At the same time, the contest will have its own “sub-chart“, which shows the ranking of only the songs that are taking part in the contest, which will be viewable from the main charts by clicking the 
small icon on the left of the song entry. For the “Leap Year” contest, we are using the HomeGrown Hits “H” house icon.
You may have noticed we don’t post ads on the site, and we don’t plan to. However, we are looking for ways to sustain our ability to maintain and expand this free social music site, and those include sponsored contests! For artists, sometimes healthy competition for a prize is just the right nudge to improve your song. And listeners can only benefit from this competition.
We think contests will add to the fun of the site for musicians and listeners. We are sponsoring our first contest ourselves, but we want to open the door to anyone with a cool idea for a song competition. If you are a maker or seller of music-related gear or other items, or an event organizer wanting to promote your gig, contact us to learn about opportunities to purchase your very own “sub-chart” on the HomeGrownHits.com charts as part of your own contest.
UPDATE: The contest is over and the winner is Half Hour City!
Playlists are now available on HomeGrown Hits! They are basically your own private jukebox, independent of the Charts. (As in the Charts, songs play automatically one after the other in sequence.) Here’s how it works:
Have fun!
The band Facing Arrows held the number one spot for 31 days with their hit song “Home”. Everyone listened to it, loved it, and voted it straight to the top. Now guess what… On Thursday, August 25th, Facing Arrows will be playing the famous El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles! You voted them to the top, now go see them live.
We are getting some great music posted on HomeGrown Hits! The band Facing Arrows held the #1 spot for 31 days, until last week, when Garland charged right to the top with their song “Sunshine Days”. It's a great song and you should take a listen and give your vote. We are having fun watching the Charts change right before our eyes as we cast our votes, are you? If you have not experienced this yet, you must give it a try. YOUR VOTES COUNT. It's very cool to see it happen when you click a star (Thank you Jim!). We are working hard to make the playlist function available to you and it will be up soon.
Since our last post thirty-five songs have been added to the HomeGrown Hits website. The site is growning at a phenomenal rate, and the caliber of music that is now available to listen to is frankly, way better than we were expecting at such an early stage (check out the current #1 song, “Home” by Facing Arrows, to get an idea of what we mean).
But now we need you to breathe life into the charts and keep them fresh. If you want the charts to be a place to discover new, high quality, music, you need to rate the songs you listen to. As you vote, you will see the charts change – it’s pretty amazing. (You will need to log in to vote.) Your vote counts. In fact, the more songs you rate, the more your vote counts! To read more about rating and how the charts work, see the About page.
You’ll notice most of the links now work. In particular, we’ve added the ability to list the most recently added songs, so you can check out music that was uploaded since your last visit. For a “shuffle-play” type of listing, you can also sort the charts randomly. If you like a song by a particular artist and want to see all the songs by the artist, click on the artist’s name.
COMING SOON: playlists!
This site is under construction, and will go live for beta testing in early May 2011. Would you like to help us shake out the bugs in the system? Are you a musician who records at home, or a music lover who would like to check out cutting edge tunes? Sign up to help us beta test.
UPDATE 27 May 2011
This site is still under construction! Would you like to help us shake out the bugs in the system? Are you a musician who records at home, or a music lover who would like to check out cutting edge tunes? Try registering for an account. If you’re a musician, upload a homegrown song. For music lovers, listen to the songs that have been uploaded. When the site is fully functional, you will be able to rate songs and watch the charts take shape! We’re not there yet, but it’s just around the corner. Sign up here and we’ll keep you up to date on changes to the site.
UPDATE 1 June 2011
We still have some work to do and some links to connect, but the meat of the site, The Charts, is now functional!
Are you a musician who records at home, or a music lover who would like to check out cutting edge tunes? Try registering for an account. If you’re a musician, upload a homegrown song. For music lovers, listen to the songs that have been uploaded. NEW: rate songs and watch the charts take shape! It’s easy — just click on the stars (you will need to be logged in).
Sign up here and we’ll keep you up to date on changes to the site.
Please excuse our mess. We are building a new site. We hope to be online by early May 2011!
