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.

We've provided 10 tips below which we think may help our friendly Labels and Musicians who are thinking of running a remix contest to understand the mind of the remix contest entrant... and I believe I speak for many a remix contest entrant as I list them. This list should be seen as things you should think about before running that remix contest.

What we want to see in no particular order...

1. A remix pack that we don't have to pay for.
Unless we are one of your devoted fans we don't want to have to pay to get the remix parts. Every time we see a price tag on the remix parts we scowl at you through our computer screens with disbelief. We don't mind paying for the MP3 of the original track, but please don't charge us for the remix parts.

2. Decent prizes.
The one is a pretty obvious one, we are not that keen to see this sort of prize... "We put your remix in my MySpace player for 1 month.", and then we go to your MySpace page and realize it gets visited by 10 people per month. We are musicians, we like music, so do you really think we need an MP3 player which most of us will already have? So what do we want I hear you ask? We would prefer to have a prizes such as... "A release on our label/b-side single release with a small share of the profits.". I ask you... "Would 10% of the takings of the remix that we created and won with really hurt you that much?" We would also love to see more labels offering the chance for the winning remixer to get a release of their own tracks on labels. If you can't provide releases we all like music making gear.

3. A good remix pack.
We want all the remix parts included in the pack and named properly, we don't just want the acapella, we want the drums, guitars and everything else that is part of the original. We want the vocals with effects on and off if you have them and we want them in high quality .Wav files, not 128kbps .MP3s which have sound quality loss. By giving us better samples, you get back better remixes.

4. The ability to stream our remixes on our MySpace page.
When we make music, we want people to hear it, so let us place the remixes we took the time to make in streaming format on our own websites, our myspaces, our reverb nations and our last.fms. You do realise that people may come a buy the original from you and maybe even become one of your fans because they heard our remixes. It is free advertising for you.

5. A well run contest.
Making a remix can take some time and you should acknowledge that by running a good contest. When we send you our entries, send us a message back saying... "Thanks we have received you entry". It's not that hard to do. Don't leave us hanging on for 6 months waiting to find out who won and actually tell us who won in an email or news post on your site, we want to know who beat us if we lost. Also give us enough time to complete our remixes, we think 6 week long contests are about right.

6. May the best remix win.
We don't want "Mr. Spammy" to win because they had the most Facebook, Twitter or MySpace friends who went and voted for their remix after they spammed everyone with their "Yo, go vote for my remix y'all" messages. We want well judged remix contests with the winner being the best remix. You can take into account any votes from people, but in our opinion it should not completely dictate the final winner.

7. A streaming version of the original.
Most of the time when we see a remix contest we don't know the original version, so provide us with a streaming one so we can take a listen. Just providing a few drum hits and sounds in a remix pack does not allow us to hear the original version in our minds ear.

8. Worldwide acceptance of entries.
Remixers come from many countries, why limit it to just one country. If you can speak 2 languages why not write the remix contest description in 2 languages. You will get more entries and you never know that foreign entry might be a hit.

9. The ability to listen to all entries.
Give us the chance to hear what other remixers are up to, it helps us to improve our remixing and is great to hear how others portrayed your track. It is also exposure for our own music, even if we lose your contest and we like exposure.

10. Give some kudos to good entries and feedback.
And if you're feeling extra generous with your time why not at the end of the contest, give us some feedback on where we went wrong and/or right or even some tips on how we could've improved our sound. A sentence or two doesn't take long as you listen through them or you could tell us some "best of the rest" entries in the winner announcement so that we know we were close.

If you are running a remix contest remember to tell us about it. This site exists because it can be tricky keeping track of them and sometimes we miss them too, so submit it to Remix Comps and let hundreds of remixers know about your contest. This is not a guide of requirements to get listed on Remix Comps. As a remixer do you have any tips for musicians, bands and labels who are running remix contests? If so add them to the comments.