john

That hugely depends on genre and on time period. Ie songs written 20 years ago used different dominant sequences than 50 years ago, even within genres

A good book. I haven't heard of one exactly like that. I was thinking of doing something for Songstuff that is in that neck of the woods though. I have done some design work on it and have coded some up to test concept, though the finished product will be realised in a different language. In my version you work within chord progressions, where whatever chord your are at will then have a number of options going from most common next chord down to least common next chord. You can audition it at any point. At any point you can say what your starting chord is and it will then render the progression in that key simple. It would be a simple revers to do even closer to what you suggest (set key and the chord suggestions are algorithmically derived from the progression but auto rendered in key and very little further to do exactly as you suggest. As to when we do such a tool depends on several factors. It could be on our development list soon or it might be a little while, it depends on a number of factors.

Hey David, welcome to Songstuff

Tom makes some good points. The customers are the songwriters. The panel are paid and sadly just as invested and biased as any other part of the music industry. While the entrants might like to believe it is about the song, really for most entrants it is a promotion opportunity, a chance for someone who might have once done something to maybe hear their work and like it (really? Pullease) how sad is that? I'd be pretty surprised if most ever get listened to. The contests are generally in it for money (except free contests, like ours, but they serve the writer, the artist and the site and we are upfront about that, and they are listener's poll not panel based). Band, writer and site / contest are in it for the promo and the hyped delusion that it really means something to anyone outside the contest. Truth is they don't much. Our contests are more about the knowledge and insight the writer gains from the voting profile. They are not big enough to really be about the promo... But... All contests do have a vanity aspect. The delusion with the paid contest is that it's not really a vanity project (they are) and that the writers really gain from it (99.9999% really don't in large paid contests) the winner gains a set of prizes donated to the contest by the gear manufacturers as prizes in return for getting their name all over it. Songstuff used to help get word out there for a couple of the more reputable contests, hell we even discussed doing our contests, with big prizes donated by big software and hardware manufacturers. We looked at the structure of such contests and decided NOT to do it. The standard contest was merely a marketing machine where the contestants were PAYING to be marketed to. What a con. For example: The site running the contest gets paid by the entrants They get the prizes from the gear makers for free They get paid by advertisers They get free advertising on music websites in return for promoting those sites in a pretty one sided deal They get promoted in newsletters in exchange for the same In return they pay a panel to listen to some recordings.... Lets do some maths.... The average pop hit lasts 3 minutes or more. Many songs last closer to 5 minutes. Split the difference at 4 which is being generous to the contests. So for 10,000 entered songs that's 40,000 minutes of music for the panel to listen and evaluate. That's 667 hours approximately, or 85 days of music listening at 8 hours per day, that's 17 working weeks. For names that just isn't going to happen. Not if they still have any form of personal music career. Instead it gets passed to pretty well anyone to listen to to whittle it down to a short list, listening often to 30 seconds or less until they get down to 100 or so. Those then might get a longer listen before a final short list of 10 to 20 get passed to the named panel. I've seen very busy artists named on those panels. For example Lynyrd Skynyrd band members. Have you seen their tour dates? Lmao. Of course they only hear a short list! Meanwhile the contest runs for months and months. That is months for the companies to market at the songwriters, sometimes upwards of 6 months. Sometimes the marketing also involves affiliate links so that even when a songwriter buys one of those products the contest site gets paid for that too. Fees range from $10 to $45 per entry. At a conservative entry of 10,000 for these larger contests that's between $100,000 and $450,000 in fees. Some of he big contests do waaaaay more than 10,000 entries. Certainly several had mailing lists of more than 250,000 songwriters about 10 years ago, you can only guess him many are on their books now. Often the entrants enter more than one song, so 10,000 entries is quite conservative. For bigger contests I wouldn't be surprised by 10 times that. Maybe 5 times is certainly very realistic. Some contests also have placement arrangements ready and waiting. Yes a gain for the winner but also more money for the site. The trouble is, other than the prize money the actual prizes are fairly short lived, and of limited benefit, even to the ultimate winners. Of course there are benefits, but lets also not kid ourselves that the well being and career of the winner is key here. It isn't. They are another quick turn over profit before being sucked dry and spat out lol You can tell I am a fan can't you? The paid contests are a bit of a mix between a lottery ticket and vanity publishing. As long as you understand that and are happy with the limited chance of tangible benefits, fair enough. Otherwise learn some skills, put your money towards real promotion and enter some free contests if you like that sort of thing or they give a ood level of feedback to all contestants. Just my 2 cents

Welcome to Songstuff Daniel. Good to meet you