Shure

Since 1925, musicians and music enthusiasts around the world have chosen Shure with confidence in the unparalleled sound and performance of their products. For forty years and counting, the Shure SM58 has been the most popular vocal microphone in the world, revered for its natural sound and famed durability.

The Competition

Shure and Audiojack have teamed up to create an amazing opportunity, not only to win prizes, but also to have your voice heard all around the world! We’re looking to find the next big thing - a vocalist with exceptional talent and originality. This competition isn’t about your backstory, your appearance, ridiculous TV auditions - it’s about a voice and the talent of the singer that controls it.

How To Enter

• Sign up to join the Audiojack community
• Download the backing tracks and lyric sheets
• Practice, practice, practice.
• When you’re ready to record, make a video of your performance.
• Upload your video clip to You Tube or Vimeo and add your link to the competition page.
• Send singingcompetition@audiojackmusicians.com your application that is in the competition toolkit.
• Once you have completed the registration process ‘friend’ Audiojack on the community page to confirm your entry.

Two songs have been written specifically for this competition by a team of top London songwriters. Dave Marks, Jo Webb and Nick Oliver have a raft of playing, writing and production credits that include James Morrison, Melanie C, Hurts, Nik Nershaw and Mark Owen.

The male song is called ‘Out of Time’ and the female track is ‘Last Goodbye.’ Your download will include 3 files:

1. An mp3 reference track (featuring the song with a guest vocalist)
2. An mp3 singalong track (for you to sing over in your video)
3. A Pdf with the song lyrics and chords.

You can use the singalong track or, if you prefer, create your own accompaniment. Feel free to play piano, guitar or even involve a whole band. Just remember – we really want to hear your voice so make sure it’s nice and clear on the recording.
If you prefer to create your own lyrics, melodies or improvisations, feel free – this competition recognises with how well you sing, but also what you bring to a song in your interpretation. If you’d like to slow it down, speed it up, change the key or style that’s fine – it’s about you making the song your own.

Prizes

The greatest voice in the world still needs a great microphone in order to convey all of its tone, nuance and detail. Finding the right microphone is, for many vocalists, a lifelong quest. The winner of this competition will go along to the Shure studio and with the help of Shure’s expert engineers, select a microphone perfectly suited to their voice.

The winner will have a Shure microphone & headphone voucher (valued at £1,000) to spend on their chosen microphone. They will then use it to record a track in a session we’ve organized in a London studio.

We’ve also included two runner-up prizes of an SM58 microphone and a pair of Shure SRH440 headphones.

The Timeline

The competition will accept video entries until Tuesday, 31st July 2012. The public will also be allowed to vote and our panel of judges will also choose their personal favourites.
After all of the videos have been received and the competition is closed, five finalists will be selected. The top five singers will be announced on Friday 17th August and they will be invited to perform in London at the live final on Friday 31st August.

So that’s it. It’s really that simple – no entry fees, no small print, no horrible recording contract to sign your life away to.

So get downloading, start practicing and show the world how incredible your voice is!