The biggest cash prize currently on this desk after the International Songwriting Competition, and the deadline furthest out: $10,000 to one Grand Prize winner, with $1,000 to the first place in each of twenty-three categories and $500 to each second. Entries close December 7, 2026 at 11:59:59 p.m. CT.
The entry fee needs reading twice. The contests index prints “$25/song”, and the terms print a three-step ladder — $25, $30, $35 — with the note that the dates which move you up it are announced separately. So the price on the day you enter is knowable only at the entry form, which is where the card sends you.
Two of the organizer’s own pages describe the rights position differently, and the difference is the reason this card carries a heads-up. The contest page’s FAQ answers the question flatly: “You retain full ownership — we do not claim any rights to songs entered into the contest.” The terms and conditions say that too, and then grant a licence over everything submitted. Both are quoted in the record below. Neither is hidden and neither is unusual — but a licence with no stated end date is a different sentence from “we claim no rights”, and the entry form is not where you want to be reading it for the first time.
The record
Source
American Songwriter’s contests index (americansongwriter.com/contests-new), the Song Contest page and the official Song Contest Terms and Conditions, all captured August 11, 2026.
Refunds
Entry fees are non-refundable — the refunds clause.
Who can enter
Songwriters worldwide, across twenty-three categories including Americana, Contemporary Country, Folk/Singer-Songwriter, Musical Theatre, Sync Ready and Teen. Entrants must be 13 or older; under-18s need parental consent.
What it costs
The contests index prints “$25/song”. The terms print a tier ladder — Opener $25, Feature $30, Encore $35 — and state that the dates which switch between them are announced separately, so the applicable tier is not derivable from either page. Both captured August 11, 2026.
The prize
$10,000 cash to the Grand Prize winner, $1,000 to each category first place and $500 to each second. The non-cash side is named rather than implied: a publishing opportunity with Savage Music, radio promotion through Play MPE, a Gibson guitar, a magazine feature and studio time.
Rights, plainly
The contest page’s FAQ: “Yes. You retain full ownership — we do not claim any rights to songs entered into the contest.” The terms, Section 5: “We do NOT claim ownership in the materials you submit”, followed by a grant of “a limited, non-exclusive license to use, stream, transmit, beam, store, publicly display, translate, reproduce, and distribute such Content, in any format, whether known or unknown… ONLY for purposes of the Contest.” The licence is bounded by purpose. It is not bounded by time — no end date or reversion appears in the captured terms.
Feedback policy
Stated, and it is a paid one: “Not on contest entries. If you’d like your song critiqued, that benefit is included with Diamond Membership.” The organizer sells to entrants the thing the entry fee does not buy.
How it is judged
“No. Production quality is not part of the judging.” Judges are named on the contest page — among them Peter Frampton, Lisa Loeb, Lzzy Hale, Anoushka Shankar, Parker McCollum and Mitchell Tenpenny.