Nashville Songwriting Scholarship Competition Rules

Begin Application

OFFICIAL RULES 2021

 

ABOUT

The Nashville Songwriting Scholarship is an annual competition established in 2015 to encourage and support aspiring country music songwriters nationwide. The award commemorates Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)’s 75th Anniversary year and pays homage to musical epicenter and “Songwriting Capital of the World,” Nashville, Tennessee. A $5,000 scholarship is awarded for the best original song entry in any of the following genres: Americana, blues, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, country, folk, and roots. GRAMMY-winning recording artist and BMI songwriter Kacey Musgraves serves as honorary spokesperson for the competition.

ELIGIBILITY

In order to be eligible for the competition, all applicants must be:

  1. Current full-time or part-time students of a U.S. college or university. Students who have been accepted for future enrollment are NOT eligible.
  2. Between the ages of 17 and 24, as of January 22, 2021.
  3. Former winners (other than Honorable Mention) of the Nashville Songwriting Scholarship are not eligible to enter the competition.

NOTE: Nashville Songwriting Scholarship entrants who are also applying to the John Lennon Scholarships must submit different songs for each contest. Dual applicants may NOT submit the same original work to both competitions.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Applications must be submitted online no later than January 22, 2021, 11:59pm EST. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered. Before beginning an application, please read these guidelines thoroughly:

  1. Applicants may submit only one song to the competition according to the following rules: a). All applicants must meet all eligibility requirements. b.) Such a jointly written work will be considered as a single entry. c.) Should a jointly written work receive any type of award under this contest, the scholarship will be divided equally between applicants.
  2. The submitted work must be an original song with lyrics accompanied by whatever instrumentation is chosen by the applicant. Both lyrics and music must be original and not based on any prior work.
  3. The entry must be submitted as a MP3 or MP4a file, which should be named only with the title of the song. One copy of the lyrics must also be submitted as a PDF. Neither of these items may indicate the name of the applicant or their school. Applicants should retain copies of their recordings and lyrics since the Foundation will not undertake to return materials.
  4. In the case of a joint or co-written song: a.) All applicants must meet all eligibility requirements. b.) Such a jointly written work will be considered as a single entry. c.) Should a jointly written work receive any type of award under this contest, the scholarship will be divided equally between applicants.
  5. Applicants must warrant that they have not assigned any rights in the submitted work to a major music publisher or major record label.

AWARD

One $5,000 award will be available for the competition. The Foundation reserves the right to make no award or to award a prize or prizes totaling less than the full amount. The BMI Foundation shall have the right (but shall have no obligation) to license up to three public performances of a winning composition and, in the case of works of a popular nature, authorize appropriate musical arrangements to be made for such performances. The BMI Foundation shall also have the right to post or share a recording and/or written lyrics of any winning compositions on the bmi.com and bmifoundation.org websites and social media profiles and to authorize the reproduction and distribution on audio tape and/or CD of no more than twelve (12) copies of each work. All other rights under the copyright law remain vested in the composer and lyricist.

The winner, if any, will be announced in late spring 2021 via email, in the press and/or at www.bmifoundation.org.

INQUIRIES

Please address all inquiries to:

scholarships@bmifoundation.org

Clay Bradley
Director, Nashville Songwriting Scholarship
BMI Foundation, Inc.
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007-0030


Begin Application