Oticon Score Contest

In general, paid entry competitions are a racket. Sure, there's judges and organizers, but if they're not willing to do it on a volunteer basis (much like the rewards are done on a donation basis), then they're not really in it for the right reasons. Once it becomes about money, it becomes about maximizing the number of participants while the number of winners remains miniscule.

There might be the occasional paid competition that might be worth it, but I'm extremely skeptical of any that charge an application fee of any kind.

Up to now I was really quite positive about this topic, thinking ok, they need to pay all the organisation, judges etc. as you say. I paid a few times between 20 and 30€ and thought it was worth it to have a representative video for my show reel afterwards. And of course one should be happy to have such opportunities to join challenges at all. But this gave me really to think now. Whatever the prices for the winners are, but for me it's important to have also an advantage from my participation without winning. And never ever for 120€. This really looks like a scam.

Mam Aki said:

Can anyone tell me what justifies an entry fee of €120 (!) in this contest, which is obviously based somewhere in Eastern Europe? The tasks sound interesting at first impression. The third task is to create a score based only on the script and brief from the director. What sounds like a cool task at first actually means that they don't even offer a video that I can later use for my show reel. What do you think about that?

Oticons Faculty Int'l Film Music Competition

OTICONS FACULTY is an annual online international Film Music Competition for film and media composer. This groundbreaking film scoring contest is unique due to its assignments, awards and the feedback it provides to composers. It is open for Registrations annually from September 1st to February...

faculty.oticons.com

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I'm fairly new to all this, and so far in the 9 months I've done 3 competitions (awaiting results on the 3rd) that are paid. Admittedly some of them are quite high in price but I usually think of it as a way to cover costs etc. But at 120 bucks I need to know, is there something special about this one? Like does this have a lot of recognition and industry connections? Like have previous winners gone on to do great things!? 120 for some comps is like 6 entries!

TheNashJMusic said:

I'm fairly new to all this, and so far in the 9 months I've done 3 competitions (awaiting results on the 3rd) that are paid. Admittedly some of them are quite high in price but I usually think of it as a way to cover costs etc. But at 120 bucks I need to know, is there something special about this one? Like does this have a lot of recognition and industry connections? Like have previous winners gone on to do great things!? 120 for some comps is like 6 entries!

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This is exactly what I was wondering too and I thought maybe somebody could explain me what is so special with this contest. I just realized that they even didn't pay for a video license to offer it for the participants. So if you don't belong to the winners you have absolutely nothing to show later on your demo reel - and this for 120€. It's also not that you record as the main winner with the London BBC orchestra or so. As first prize winner, you may join at one of some events like the film music festival in Krakow and you get a certification. I also don't see a luminary like Hans Zimmer among the judges. But maybe I missed some details.

Mam Aki said:

Can anyone tell me what justifies an entry fee of €120 (!) in this contest, which is obviously based somewhere in Eastern Europe? The tasks sound interesting at first impression. The third task is to create a score based only on the script and brief from the director. What sounds like a cool task at first actually means that they don't even offer a video that I can later use for my show reel. What do you think about that?

Oticons Faculty Int'l Film Music Competition

OTICONS FACULTY is an annual online international Film Music Competition for film and media composer. This groundbreaking film scoring contest is unique due to its assignments, awards and the feedback it provides to composers. It is open for Registrations annually from September 1st to February...

faculty.oticons.com

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I missed anything, but it also looks like each assignment only gets one winner. That's a lot of music writing for a chance to just toss it into the ether. At least with film scoring competitions you have some nice video to demonstrate writing to picture on your portfolio, but this is just a piece of music for a specific purpose. I wouldn't enter competitions more than $50 to be honest-- especially if there's only one winner or a lot of writing needed.

Not helpful, but this really confused me at first, as "Oticon" is the name of a major hearing-aid manufacturer based in Europe. No idea what this film-music-competition organization is.

Tom_D said:

Not helpful, but this really confused me at first, as "Oticon" is the name of a major hearing-aid manufacturer based in Europe. No idea what this film-music-competition organization is.

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It should be “Oticons”, and is an established, if very expensive, contest. If you look back I posted threads for this competition for the previous two years.

I participated in Oticons some time ago, but because they used to have a very nice discount for female composers. The assignments were interesting, but I didn't succeed in this competition and I don't plan to participate in their next ones. Although I would love to hear a feedback from someone here, who won it... Anyone?
This kind of entry fee is typical for major music competitions. (It's not so bad for composers competitions - as you just need to send your score. But for instrumentalists' competition you also need to pay for your travel and accommodation, so your expenses for the participation are just tripled.)
But luckily there are many free entry composers' competitions out there, that you can take part in!

Gedren said:

I participated in Oticons some time ago, but because they used to have a very nice discount for female composers.

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I came close to entering this year, as there was a large discount for early-bird entrants, but missed that deadline and so didn't bother.

I've seen more than one competition that offers concessions for female and non-binary entrants. I don't understand why though. I know lots of women who earn far more than I do as I'm semi-retired and on a tight budget.

Rather than it being something to be lauded, I'd consider it a slight if I was female. 'You're a women, so you must have less money than a man'. Why?

And Where are the competitions with concessions for pensioners (male and female)? Lots of us have less money than others.