i heard some ppl careers started with beatport contests....doing remixes?

i was wondering how many tried it from here...and what your experiences where?

Thank you

 

I know Zedd got his start (?!) by winning a Beatport remix contest...

 

seems like noone tried it from here..

 

Or three of them, in a short period of time.

I've done a few. It's very educational and rewarding, pushing yourself to find your own voice making music with stems (that someone else have made) as a base. It can also lead to landing bigger contacts/deals, depending on how good/talented/prolific/promotional/spammy you are.

 

hey baxter,

so do you need ppl following you to support you to win? or its just 3-4 ppl checking the songs and deciding? is it fair overall?

sounds interesting though

 

They are good to force you to do something, and complete it by a deadline. A very good skill to have. Pretty much popularity vs quality though. Worth it for the experience for sure.

 

^ This!

By the way, it's really all about being either spammy or already famous (I'm talking 5 digits fanbase) to really find a spot into the runner-ups of a top-notch-label remix competition... If you're aiming at a small label remix it's probably easier to get noticed but big names rarely reward random producers

 

I've entered some, and yes, it's pretty much about how popular you are and how many votes you get. Even though they say the artist getting remixed and some other judges will pick the winner, I'm not so sure that that's really what happens all the time.
I wouldn't recommend them, unless you're really good and have a solid fan base.
If so, then by all means, go for it. I know plenty of artists that got their start from beatport contests, or who got a lot more popular after entering, even if they didn't win.

 

I don't do Beatport Contests just because all those contests are getting flooded by silly spammers literally BEGGING to vote on their "remix", even totally unrelated to the particular contest.
So they post requests to vote for another contest.
And Beatport staff seems not to care at all.
It's a mess.... avoid, avoid, avoid.

 

I agree with all the replies so far (especially the spamming part). Did also participated a few times but will not do it again. Yes it helps because you can learn to deal with a deadline and compare your skills with all the others (for learning purposes) but winning .. that's almost not done. Too much entries, higher quality from others, others have more votes (and yes some buy votes) and the choices from the jury are debatable.

Example: the winner from 1 contest used instrument stems from the package (using vox and some additional sounds that's okay, but using stems for main parts?!) while I heard remixes from others that were more creative and sounded better. I don't judge the winner, it was just his choice, but the jury. On the other hand, I heard some winners and agreed to it. So the results go up and down.

 

I've never participated, but I've listened to entries a lot in the past when I was more into the dance genres. It's a glorified popularity contest honestly. Nothing wrong with that - if you want to make yourself well known through a medium like beatport, strong social networking is a necessary skill to have.

It's not a skill I possess however.

A site like beatport, I can see why the popularity of an artist will have a lot of sway in who wins or not. If the mix artist in question is amazing, but not popular there are no sales. If they are good enough to get people's attention and popular too, then there will be some kind of sales revenue. It's not really the best contest medium to find the best of the best at making music, but more the best of the best at getting attention for your mixes. Which is a-okay.

I had a friend who would enter them, as well as some other label's contests all the time. He'd often complain about the contest model, but honestly there was more productive stuff he could have done with his time if that particular kind of contest wasn't his bag.

So I guess to answer the OP, are they worth it? Sure, if you've already got the social networking thing down. It's one thing to post a thread on a couple forums and on your facebook about voting for you in a contest, it's another thing entirely to have a following at your disposal. The latter is what would help you win, and having that following is what really boosts your career, not beatport itself (though it helps to be a big seller on a site like that for sure). They essentially just agree to bring you on when you can prove to them that you can get attention for yourself with minimal investment on their part. Anyone who places high in these contests has skills for self promotion more than anything.

Having the best remix out there isn't going to sway the majority of people from not voting for their friends, most of the time it wont even get listened to other than by the people you already know. Just keep that all in mind when entering contests like these.

It's good practice if you like to remix stuff though.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2015

The thing with beatport contests is: they are attached to your artist name for all eternity, since they appear in google and you cannot delete them from beatport play. As you advance in your career, you might not want pieces from when you made crap (compared to a later point of your expertise) available to your audience. So participating in a bp contest was a one-timer for me.
There are plenty of competitions that are not judged by spammed plays and/or likes and the contributions are under your control.

Check http://www.remixcomps.com/

have fun!

 

I was using Indaba some years ago. When i seen the word "dubstep" on every competition comments and the flood of Facebook "likes"...i stopped.
Doing some competitions is nice. Now i've done...it don't care anymore.
Open your own Youtube channel, Facebook channel, blog and such. It will get you more return than loosing your time on Beatport, Indaba and such, serving as a free advertisement for other artists. Because it is WHY you need MORE followers : to give them freely.