Music Innovation Contest 2020

Winners are now announced! See who made the judges’ favorite tracks.

Grand Prize Winner

Duka won the grand prize with “Broken”, an emotional song with strong and powerful lyrics is a fresh take on Indie, R&B and Rock with trap influences. Read the interview to learn about his approach to making music and his inspiration for writing this song.

https://soundcloud.com/dukesmcfly/duka-broken

Best Songwriting / Vocals

Boulevarde won Best Vocals prize with “1conversation” (ft. Little Green). This is such a lovely vocal recording and a great example of producers and a singer working together perfectly. Read the interview to learn about Boulevarde .

https://soundcloud.com/boulevardemusic/1conversation-ft-little-green/

Best Sound Design / Production

BLANKHEAD won the Best Sound Design / Production category with “Dive In”. Get lost in a plethora of twisted, weird and wonderful timbres. Mixed to perfection and perfectly executed, ‘Dive In’, was the judge’s favorite for the Sound Design/Production category. Read the interview to learn about BLANKHEAD.

https://soundcloud.com/blankhead-949506791/dive-in

Best Hook

Naughty Alice won Best Hook prize with “Reborn A Queen”, a energetic synth pop track with featuring artist Flore. Read the interview to learn about Alice.

Most Crazy Combo

Oliver Maple won the most crazy combo prize with “A Beat with Extra Cheese”. This song that carries influences from the styles most dear to Oliver: pop, classical, jazz, samba, techno and experimental electronic music. Read the interview to learn about Oliver Maple.

Awesome tracks that made it to the top 20

Here are the finalists. There’s a lot of interesting music in the top 20, check it out!

Ambie – Animal House
South African Gumboots + Mid-tempo Bass + Foley sounds

ask.Oli – Free
Tradional Senegalese Music, Choral Music, Cinematic Music + Pop

Blue​Drak3 – She of the Dreaming
Orchestral + Midtempo

YOUNG WUKONG (Caesar) – Wings On
Neo Soul + UK Drill

Carla Hassett – Change
Jazz + Rock

City – El Gato
ElectroPop + Spanish Rock

Dey Rose – Panting Heart
Indie Pop + Progressive Rock

DJ Friendgineer – The Giant of Easter Island
Greek Bouzouki Music + Flamenco Pop

FAI – Genesis
Miami Bass Breakbeat HipHop + Indie + Melodic Electronica

G. Samedi – ARES
Alt Rock + Hip-Hop

Rowthiram Pazhagu – Harini Iyer(feat. Han Beyli)
Indian Carnatic + Trap

Arctic Hallows by PIQSIQ
Inuit Throat Singing + Witch House

sesamii – Coiled
Classic Viola + Melodic Mid-Tempo Bass

Zopke – Believe (Feat. Marcellus Love)
Immersive Music + Pop

Thank You To Our Incredible Judges

They donated their time to judge this contest and help select the winners. A sincere “thank you” to our panel of judges.

Anna Lunoe

Anna Lunoe

instagram website Spotify

DJ, Producer, Radio Host, Curator and Vocalist

Marcelo CIC

CIC

instagram Spotify

Brazilian DJ and Producer

David Guetta

David Guetta

instagram website Spotify

Grammy-winning Artist, Producer, and DJ

Dani Deahl

Dani Deahl

instagram website Spotify

Journalist, Producer, Blogger, and DJ

DJ Prince

DJ Prince

instagram website

Originator of Harmonic Mixing and a master of multi-genre mashups

IllFactor

ill Factor

instagram website Spotify

Grammy-nominated producer and mentor. Founder of Beat Academy

Jessy Covets

Jessy Covets

instagram website Spotify

L.A. based producer, singer and songwriter

Kaskade

Kaskade

instagram website Spotify

Artist, DJ, music producer and label founder

Laura Escude

Laura Escudé

instagram website Spotify

Artist, innovator, entrepreneur and live show designer

L Dre

L Dre

instagram website Spotify

Producer, Mentor and YouTube Educator

Lorne Padman

Lorne Padman

instagram website

Curator, Speaker, VP of Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak label

Margaret Luthar

Margaret Luthar

instagram website

Nashville-based Mastering Engineer at WelcomeTo1979 Studio

Mau Montekio

Mau Montekio

instagram website Spotify

Artist, Winner of Season 1 of this contest in 2018

Ocean

Ocean

instagram website

UK-based Artist, Producer and YouTube Educator

SofiTukker

Sofi Tukker

instagram website Spotify

DJs, Innovators, Producers and Daily Live Streamers for 200+ days in a row

Tank God

Tank God

instagram website Spotify

Artist, Creator, Producer of “Post Malone – rockstar”

Thank you to our sponsors

This was the most incredible collection of prizes. Let’s do this again next year 🙂

Thank you to all the contestants!

You all did a great job. We heard hundreds of submissions that qualified for this contest, and many were epic and brand-new to us. We’ve never heard anything like it before. Thank you for submitting your entries, and come back again for Season 3 of this contest!

Contest was hosted by Captain Plugins + Mixed In Key

Available on Mac and Windows. Use Captain Plugins to write your own Chord Progressions, Hooks, Melodies and Basslines and export to your DAW

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Your suite comes with: Captain Chords, Captain Melody, Captain Deep and Captain Play

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Captain Plugins = Award-winning tools for your DAW

Computer Music innovation award

Computer Music Magazine

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Winner of the “Innovation Award”

Captain Plugins is a highly productive harmonic and melodic toolkit for experienced musicians and total newcomers to composition alike. Winner of the Innovation Award.”

Digital DJ Tips review

Digital DJ Tips

Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Captain Plugins is an essential tool for any DJ/producer. No other composition plugins are as intuitive, simple and great-sounding as Captain Plugins. Highly recommended for DJ/producers and music composers of all styles and skill levels.

MusicTech Magazine

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Captain Plugins wins the “Choice Award”