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.
How do contests work?
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.
Can I Sponsor My Own Contest?
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!
