The American Songwriter Song Contest — Sync Ready category.
with American Songwriter — winners published by name and song back to 2022 — Lydia Kaseta’s “Black Powder Smoke” took 2025, Drew Schueler 2024, The Philharmonik 2023, Harper O’Neill 2022 · listed Aug 13Verified · Aug 13
Closes
December 7
months away
To enter
$25 per song
a three-step ladder — $25 / $30 / $35 — whose switching dates are not published
It pays
$1,000 cash to the Sync Ready first place and $500 to second
with $10,000 cash to the Grand Prize across all categories
Your rights
The license has no stated end date — Section 5 (Content).
A heads-up: Section 5 (Content) takes a licence over what you send and never states how long it lasts. Scope, duration and revocability are what a licence means — an ownership disclaimer standing next to it settles none of them, so this is the question to put to American Songwriter in writing before you enter.
This is one category inside American Songwriter’s song contest, carded here because the category is the opportunity: “Sync Ready songs are professionally produced, commercially appealing tracks crafted for placement in film, television, advertising, and media.” Entries close December 7, 2026 at 11:59:59 p.m. CT — the same date, the same fee and the same terms as the whole-contest card on the competitions desk, which is the honest way to say that entering here is entering that.
The money is stated as numbers. First place in each category, Sync Ready included, receives $1,000 cash and second place $500; one Grand Prize of $10,000 cash is awarded across all categories rather than per category. The entry fee needs reading twice: the contest page prints $25 a song, and the terms print a three-step ladder — $25, $30, $35 — with the dates that move you up it announced separately, so the price on the day you enter is knowable only at the entry form.
The rights sentence on this card comes from the terms, not the marketing page, and the difference is the reason it carries a heads-up. The contest page’s FAQ says “You retain full ownership — we do not claim any rights to songs entered into the contest.” Section 5 of the terms says that too, and then grants a licence over everything submitted: limited, non-exclusive, bounded to the purposes of the contest — and with no end date anywhere in the captured text. A licence with no stated duration is a different sentence from “we claim no rights”, and a sync-facing category is exactly where that difference gets expensive.
The record
Source
American Songwriter’s Song Contest page and its official Song Contest Terms and Conditions, both captured August 13, 2026.
Refunds
Entry fees are non-refundable — the refunds clause.
What this card is
The Sync Ready category of the American Songwriter Song Contest 2026, not a separate competition. The whole contest is also listed on the competitions desk; the fee, deadline, terms and Grand Prize are shared. Entering the category is entering the contest.
Who can enter
Songwriters worldwide. Sync Ready is one of twenty-three categories, described by the organizer as professionally produced tracks made for placement in film, television, advertising and media. Entrants must be 13 or older; under-18s need parental consent.
What it costs
The contest page 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 13, 2026.
The prize
$1,000 cash to the first place in each category and $500 to each second, with a single $10,000 cash Grand Prize across all categories. The non-cash side is named rather than implied: a publishing opportunity, radio promotion, a magazine feature, studio time and a custom guitar.
Rights, plainly
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, which is what the heads-up above reports.
How it is judged
Judges are named on the contest page — among them Peter Frampton, Lisa Loeb, Lzzy Hale, Anoushka Shankar, Parker McCollum and Mitchell Tenpenny. Past winners are named by writer and song for 2022 through 2025.
more from this desk
Scoring & placement
Soundscape — non-exclusive representation for film, TV and advertising
with Soundscape Media Inc.
Closes
Rolling
Rolling — no deadline pressure
Entry
Free to submit
It pays
No cash up front — 50% of all Net Receipts Soundscape actually collects on your music, plus 100% of the writer’s share of performance royalties paid to you direct by your PRO
A non-exclusive license, limited to licensing your compositions and masters to media productions worldwide, for a three-year term that renews yearly unless either side gives 60 days’ notice; it reverts once the term ends — Section 2(1).
A heads-up: Section 7(2)(b) uses perpetual/irrevocable licensing language over the song, regardless of any separate ownership disclaimer — scope, duration and revocability decide, not the disclaimer.
A publicity-rights note: Section 2(4) grants Soundscape Media Inc. the right to use your name, likeness and photographs in connection with the rights it licenses — a publicity-rights grant, and a separate question from what happens to the song.
No cash up front — 42.5% of every licence fee Tribe of Noise collects on your music, with 42.5% to the platform and 15% held back against transaction costs
The license has no stated end date — Section 9.1.
A heads-up: Section 9.1 takes a licence over what you send and never states how long it lasts. Scope, duration and revocability are what a licence means — an ownership disclaimer standing next to it settles none of them, so this is the question to put to Tribe of Noise BV in writing before you enter.