The Song Post.
Competitions/SongwriterUniverse

Best Song Of The Month.

with SongwriterUniverse — run by Dale Kawashima, who interviews each month’s winner for the published article — Joe Linstrum in January 2026 through Mitch Cooper in July 2026, seven consecutive months on the record · listed Aug 2Verified · Aug 2
Closes
Rolling
Rolling — no deadline pressure
Entry
$10 per song
$20 for two, $30 for three, $40 for four
You could win
No cash
industry directories and a Broadjam membership, plus a published interview
Your rights
The contest page carries no rights, licence or ownership clause — captured August 2, 2026.

There is no closing date to miss here, which is why the card says rolling rather than showing you a countdown: “The deadline for receiving entries will be the last day of each month. Any entry received past the deadline will be eligible for the next month's contest.” Late is not late; it is next month.

The prize is entirely non-cash and the page attaches its own retail values to it: the A&R Registry ($100), the Music Publisher Registry ($100), the Film & Television Music Guide ($150), The Indie Bible ($39.50) and a one-year Broadjam Primo membership ($199) — $588.50 by the organizer’s own numbers, against a $10 entry. The winner also gets a feature interview article on the site. Four runners-up each receive the Broadjam membership.

The gap on this card is the rights line. The contest page sets out the fee, the deadline, the prizes and the judging criteria, but carries no clause about what entering permits. We quote what is there and we do not fill in the rest.

The record
Who can enter
Any songwriter; entries are judged “on its artistic merit, originality, craft and market potential”.
What it costs
“The entry fee for this contest is $10.00 U.S. for one song.” Two songs $20, three $30, four $40 — a flat per-song price rather than an escalating tier.
The prize
No cash. The A&R Registry (stated value $100), Music Publisher Registry ($100), Film & Television Music Guide ($150), The Indie Bible ($39.50) and a one-year Broadjam Primo membership ($199) — $588.50 at the organizer’s stated values. Plus a feature interview article on the site. Four finalists each receive the Broadjam membership.
Rights, plainly
Nothing to quote: the captured contest page contains no rights, licence, ownership or permission clause. That absence is what the rights line reports.
Deadline
Rolling and monthly: “The deadline for receiving entries will be the last day of each month. Any entry received past the deadline will be eligible for the next month's contest.”
Source
SongwriterUniverse “Best Song Of The Month” contest page and the published winner articles, captured August 2, 2026.
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Closes
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Entry
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You could win
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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.
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Closes
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eight weeks
Entry
$35 per song
You could win
No cash, $11,000 of merchandise and services to the Grand Prize winner
“Entrants and their collaborators will retain full rights to all work submitted for the competition” — Rule 5.
A publicity-rights note: Rule 6: “Entry constitutes permission to use winners names, likeness and voices for future publicity and advertising purposes without additional compensation.” A publicity grant over winners, not a claim on the song — the same clause shape appears in ISC’s Rule 10 and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest’s Section 5.
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