IGNITE Competition Checklist

An IGNITE competition moves through five stages: entering the competition, forming teams, making and submitting the track, voting, and announcing the winners. Each stage follows the schedule set for that competition, and the dates for registration opening and closing, the team building deadline, the submission deadline, and voting start and end are all on the competition's detail page. Prizes also vary by competition, so treat the detail page as the source of truth.

What first-time entrants miss most is that each stage only allows certain actions. You can only create a team once team building begins, entries can only be uploaded during the submission window, and voting only opens during the voting period. Go through the checklist below stage by stage and put your team's internal deadlines on the calendar early.

Only users who have signed up for IGNITE and registered as musicians can enter. When you click to enter, an entry notice appears. It explains that the competition proceeds on its published schedule, that teams must submit their entry before the deadline and teams that don't are automatically disqualified, that entries must be the original work of you or your whole team, and that if you win, distribution and revenue are shared according to IGNITE's published policy. You need to agree to it to complete your entry.

Before applying, look at your profile. In the next stage, other participants choose teammates by browsing portfolios, so an empty role, genre, bio or portfolio makes team invitations unlikely.

When team building opens, you can create a new team or request to join an existing one. You can only belong to one team per competition, so choose carefully. Creating a team asks for a team name and description, visibility, the roles you're recruiting, the roles you'll cover as leader, preferred gender and genres. Team leaders can also send invitations to musicians from the participant list.

When you request to join, you pick the roles you want to cover and can leave a message for the leader. Only people who have already entered that competition can send join requests. A message that explains which parts you can handle, how you work and when you're available makes the leader's decision easy.

Once the team is set, agree on the song's direction and schedule in the team chat before anything else. Working backward from the submission deadline to set internal deadlines for the demo, recording and mix keeps the last week from getting crushed. Putting the song direction or references in your team description also helps attract people who fit.

During the submission window, the team leader uploads the entry file. Audio (mp3, wav, m4a, flac, ogg) and video (mp4, mov, mkv) files are accepted, up to 500MB. The upload form asks for the song title, a short description, genre and language, and optionally album art (JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 10MB, square recommended) and a note.

After the file is uploaded comes the copyright agreement. The leader sets a copyright split and agrees to it, each teammate reviews and agrees, and once everyone has agreed the leader finalizes the entry. Two things to watch: once agreement begins, the entry file can no longer be replaced, and after finalizing, nothing can be edited. If you want one more pass on the mix, finish it before agreement starts.

Needing every teammate's agreement also means one unreachable person can hold up the whole entry. Entries can't be submitted after the deadline passes, so set a team deadline several days ahead of the real one and confirm that everyone will be around for the agreement step.

Votes can only be cast between the competition's voting start and end times. Entries in the vote tab stay hidden until voting starts, and once it does, everyone can listen to each team's entry. Any signed-up, logged-in user can vote, and each competition sets how many votes one person gets (3 by default). You can give more than one vote to the same team.

For teams, this stage is about getting the song heard. When you ask friends and fans to vote, pass on accurate details: the voting period, that they need to log in, and how many votes each person gets. The share button on your team's detail page copies a link you can post on social media. Since entries aren't visible before voting starts, time your promotional posts for when voting opens.

When voting closes, winners are announced based on the results, and the results tab shows each team's rank and vote count. According to the competition overview, the winning team receives the prize and their track is distributed to streaming platforms (DSPs), with revenue shared among the team. Distribution, fees and payout terms are explained in the Music Distribution Terms.

Entries remain available to listen to after voting closes. Whatever your rank, the song you made together becomes part of everyone's portfolio. Add the link where the song is published to your profile portfolio, and follow the teammates you worked well with. Next time, you can skip building a team from scratch and get straight to work.