[FM] contests

[RobinPG@aol.com]

also following Bill's thread (hi bill!), as one of the folks who originally 
voiced some concern about the contest thing, let me also say I have nothing 
against Jack or anyone else competing.   The real point is, however, isn't it 
rather unfair to the many newbies fees spending money to submit to all these 
contests, probably not knowing that they're competing against people who've 
been professionals for 15 years or more??  I think it is.  Those festivals, I 
would imagine, are taking in quite a bunch of revenue this way.... 300 
submissions at $10 a pop at least.... do the math.

also nice points from Jackie Tice, Crow (hi to both!) and others. 

There have been some good suggestions following up on establishing different 
kinds of competitions. Yes it will difficult to define "established" 
criteria, but it certainly won't be a problem to discern between total 
amateurs and people who've been working professionally, have recorded CDs of 
some sort, who have been published with major publishing companies, who have h
ad record deals with labels not of their own creation, etc.  

Regards,

Robin Greenstein