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

BlueDrak3 – 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

DJ, Producer, Radio Host, Curator and Vocalist

CIC

Brazilian DJ and Producer

David Guetta

Grammy-winning Artist, Producer, and DJ

Dani Deahl

Journalist, Producer, Blogger, and DJ

DJ Prince

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

ill Factor

Grammy-nominated producer and mentor. Founder of Beat Academy

Jessy Covets

L.A. based producer, singer and songwriter

Kaskade

Artist, DJ, music producer and label founder

Laura Escudé

Artist, innovator, entrepreneur and live show designer

L Dre

Producer, Mentor and YouTube Educator

Lorne Padman

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

Margaret Luthar

Nashville-based Mastering Engineer at WelcomeTo1979 Studio

Mau Montekio

Artist, Winner of Season 1 of this contest in 2018

Ocean

UK-based Artist, Producer and YouTube Educator

Sofi Tukker

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

Tank God

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 🙂

🏆 Grand Prize

Grand Prize winner that combines at least 2 different genres to form something new.

🏆 Best Songwriting / Vocals

This prize is for the best vocals on a great 2-genre combo

🏆 Best Sound Design / Production

2-genre combo with excellent Sound Design and Production quality – showcase your technical talent at creating sounds

🏆 Best Hook

This prize is for the most memorable Call-and-Response / Hook in the track.

🏆 Crazy Combination Prize

This prize is for someone who really thought outside the box. Acoustic Techno? Chillout Heavy Metal?

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 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

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