The Untz Challenge VII

Published: February 9, 2016

**VOTING IN THE UNTZ CHALLENGE VII IS NOW OPEN**

LISTEN TO ALL 40 FINALISTS AND VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE: bit.ly/TheUntzChallenge7Voting

The Untz Challenge VII: Turn Your Dreams into a Reality

TheUntz.com gives electronic music producers the chance to perform at major U.S. music festivals this summer

The Untz Challenge VII

For all you hustling producers, making beats in your bedroom and playing house parties for your friends—this one’s for you. TheUntz.com is bringing back The Untz Challenge, but this time the stakes are higher than ever and are guaranteed to change your electronic music career forever.

Our prize package includes the opportunity to perform at the biggest and best summer music festivals taking place across the United States--and this year, we've picked the cream of the crop. The two winners of The Untz Challenge VII will be playing at SEVEN major music festivals across five months.

Our two winning acts will hit Summer Camp Music Festival (May 27-29 - Chillicothe, IL), The Untz Festival (June 2-4 - Mariposa, CA), SONIC BLOOM (June 16-19 - TBA, CO), Electric Forest (June 23-26 - Rothbury, MI), ARISE Festival (August 5-7 - Loveland, CO), Imagine Music Festival (August 26-28 - Atlanta, GA), and Backwoods Music Festival (September 2-4 - Agra, OK).

Beginning February 29th continuing until March 18th, The Untz will accept submissions for the competition via SoundCloud. During the month of April, fans will vote on their favorite tracks via TheUntz.com.

A total of 2 slots will be given away to the winners of this contest. The grand prize, which includes a performance slot at each of the participating festivals, will be won through the fan voting process. The second place winner is chosen by the staff of TheUntz.com, and will have the opportunity to perform at the same dates along the run.

Important Dates for The Untz Challenge VII
February 29 – Track submission begins
March 18 – Track submission ends 11:59pm PST
March 29 – Voting begins
April 8 – Voting ends 11:59pm PST
April 12 – First and second place winners announced

Now then, here are the rules and regulations of the competition:

ORIGINAL tracks can be submitted beginning February 29^th, and we will continue to accept submissions until March 18^th at 11:59 pm PST. (DO NOT SUBMIT TRACKS BEFORE 2/29/16)
Submitted tracks must be UNRELEASED prior to the contest start date, which covers singles, EPs, LPs, and compilations on major and independent labels, free/paid releases via Bandcamp, and free downloads/streams on SoundCloud.

Submission period is OPEN now. This is how to do it (please follow these instructions exactly):

Join The Untz Challenge VII SoundCloud Group at this link: https://soundcloud.com/groups/the-untz-challenge-vii
Upload your track to your SoundCloud account.
Navigate to your track and click the Add to Group button and then select The Untz Challenge VII group.

Tracks must REMAIN UNRELEASED (except on SoundCloud) until the contest is over (April 12).
Artists retain the rights of ownership of their work.
Please submit only ONE track per DJ/producer. If you submit more than one, only your first entry will be considered—and it will annoy us to no end, which is not a good thing.
This is strictly a contest for PRODUCERS. No live bands, please. There are other contests for that. This is not one of them.
DO NOT submit MIXES, REMIXES, or STOLEN WORK. (Yes, we understand DJs create mixes, but we want ORIGINAL, SINGLE tracks for this particular competition.)
Each track may contain samples licensed, royalty free samples, but no unauthorized proprietary samples. All submitted tracks MUST NOT infringe US copyright law. Any track removed by SoundCloud for potential copyright infringment will also be disqualified from this contest.
The Untz staff will compile a list of the best submissions.
Only votes originating from verified email providers (i.e. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Live, AOL, university emails, etc.) will be counted. Blatant use of unverified emails/spam accounts will result in disqualification.
Voting by the public will take place from March 28 - April 8
- NO bot voting
- NO voting incentives (i.e. "each voter gets a free iPad")
- NO voting raffles (i.e. "we'll take one lucky voter to each festival with us")

The contest is restricted to residents of the United States. Winners will be responsible for providing their own transportation to and from the festivals. Additionally, they will be responsible for bringing whatever equipment necessary to perform at the various festivals, within the specifications outlined in the technical riders and contracts of each individual event. Each festival reserves the right to choose when and where to schedule the winners' slots, including but not limited to, pre-parties, after-parties, and silent discos. The winners may not be afforded full artist privileges at each event—certain events will grant the winners access to hospitality, accommodations, and restricted areas beyond that of regular ticketholders, but each individual festival will communicate restrictions/privileges with the winners.

One of the main objectives of TheUntz.com is to give exposure to promising talent in the electronic music scene. The spirit of competition fostered by these annual challenges is all in good fun, because at the end of the day, fans from around the world are going to get a chance to hear amazing, cutting-edge productions from tomorrow’s biggest stars. It goes without saying, but cheating will NOT be tolerated when it comes time for voting. We've seen it all, so this is just a friendly reminder that big brother is watching, and he knows his programming. Just because this is an electronic music competition, it doesn’t mean we want robots voting. Breaking any of these rules will result in automatic disqualification. Immediate disqualification is a harsh penalty, so make sure you stay within the boundaries.

Cheating WILL NOT be tolerated. TheUntz.com has algorithms in place to detect falsified or "bot" voting. Any competitor even suspected of cheating will be disqualified, so make sure nobody is mucking up your chances of winning with or without your permission.