Remix contests provide a new way in which fans (who are musically inclined themselves) can interact with the music that they like. Making music for many is a fun past-time and there is a whole bunch of musicians out there waiting to remix your music, but why would they want to remix your music? Well here are a few reasons...

• Because they find it fun to remix other peoples' music.
• It is a great way for them to learn and practice making music.
• To increase their own portfolio of music productions that they have made.
• To get their own music noticed by people who like their remix.
• To win the contest prize (which if it is something like a release on a label then it is also a way to get their own music promoted.

As you can see there is numerous reasons why someone would want to remix your music, but what benefits do you get as the remix contest organizer and how far does it go to promoting your music... well yet again here are a few of the benefits...

• Your contest and therefore your music may get promoted around the net at various sites, forums and blogs by musicians who like your contest.
• When a musician gets interested in your contest, the first thing they're likely to do is find the original version and listen to it, giving your music listeners.
• You get a collection of remixes in different genres which you can release or use on your site, MySpace for other fans to enjoy. You could even release some as a remix album.
• By allowing remixers to post their remixes on their own web sites and MySpace profiles, you may find that fans of the remixers who enjoyed listening to those remixes will decide to check out the original version and your other tracks.

As you can see there are some great benefits to running a remix contest for both you and your remixers. I'm sure you would also agree that it is a form of promotion that could last some time because the last example above of allowing remixers to post their remixes on MySpace etc could mean that the remix contest is still working to promote your music 6 months or even 1 year from now.

It is also a comparatively cheap way of promoting your music too as the only costs involved are a bit of your time to set up the contest and the obvious cost of the final prize. The reason why it could be very cheap promotion is because you get all of the above promotion benefits for what you you might have needed to have paid for a one-time fee freelance remix and yet you might get 3, 4 or even 10 really decent remixes for a similar cost.

It might even cost you next to nothing for the prize as if your label or if you release your own music you can release a few extra remixes on a single or album release as the prize. This sort of prize is not only a fun prize for the remix contest entrants but it is also not that costly and could even make you/your label money from remix sales.

Remember we can help by providing free of charge the tools to create your contest on this site thanks to our Remix Contest Creator which comes with a great looking widget you can place on your own web site or MySpace page. This makes running your own contest not only easier to set up and get going but also possibly cheaper as you don't need to hire a web designer to program the tools for you, it's all there ready for you to use.

This blog post was originally written for our other site Rhythm Creation.