Miley Cyrus' Sideman, Mike Schmid, Wins Top Honors at USA Songwriting Competition

MikeSchmidResults of the 17th Annual USA Songwriting Competition have been announced. Los Angeles based songwriter Mike Schmid won the top position of the USA Songwriting Competition.
Berklee College of Music trained Mike Schmid won Overall Grand Prize as well as the first prize of the Children's music category with his song “Can You See All The Colors”. This is the first time that the winner of the Children's music category won the Overall Grand Prize. Mike Schmid is professional keyboard musician and has toured with Miley Cyrus and Jessica Simpson. He also received a Bachelors Degree in songwriting from Berklee College of Music.

Jonathan Ferreri, Chris Upton & Ashley Upton of Nashville, TN won the Overall 2nd Prize with “20 Years”. Perseverance pays off as he first entered the USA Songwriting Competition in 2010 and won honorable mention prize then.

THE VOICE & AMERICAN IDOL CONTESTANTS
Charlotte Sometimes of New York, NY won the Overall 3rd Prize with “Paint The Sky”. she also appeared on the hit TV show “The Voice”. American Idol contestants have also placed on USA Songwriting Competition: Ashley Robles (American Idol, 2012 Season) and Marissa Pontecorvo (American Idol, 2012 Season) won honorable mention awards at the 2012 USA Songwriting Competition.

Helle Hansen, from Denmark is a 11-time consecutive year honorable mention winner, making her the most consecutive year winner in USA Songwriting Competition's history so far. Sherri Gough (Nashville, TN) won First prize in the Lyrics category, making this her second win. She won also First Prize in 2010.

Other winners came from Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Belgium, Singapore, and Austria. See full results of the winners here:
http://www.songwriting.net/winners/

Entries are currently being accepted for the 18th Annual USA Songwriting Competition. Winning songs of the 17th Annual USA Songwriting Competition will receive airplay on a nationally syndicated radio program “Acoustic Café” as well as Sirius XM Satellite Radio. This is the first Songwriting Competition that gives airplay to the winning songs, giving deserving bands, songwriters the recognition and exposure they deserve. Entrants stand to win a grand prize of over US$50,000 in cash and music gear from sponsors, making this the largest prize in the songwriting competition. Sponsors of the 2013 Competition are: New Music Weekly, AirplayAccess.com, Loggins Promotion, Sony, Audio-Technica, D'Addario Strings, Presonus, iZotope, Propellerheads, Notion Software, Recording Magazine, Acoustica, Sonoma Wireworks, Acoustic Café Radio Program, LivewireMusician.com, Reverbnation, Broadjam, Sirius XM Radio and Sonicbids.

SUCCESS AFTER WINNING
USA Songwriting Competition has a long history of having winners getting recording and publishing contracts, have their songs placed on the charts as well as having their songs placed on film and television. The top two winners of 2011: Nenna Yvonne and Alexander Cardinale have been signed to Interscope Records after their win.

2009 First Prize winner (country) was signed to Universal Records. 2005 First Prize winner (Pop) Kate Voegele was signed to Interscope Records the year after she won and had her winning song hit top 40 on the Billboard Charts, her latest album hit Top 10 on the Billboard 200 Album charts this summer. 2007 Overall Grand Prize Winner Ari Gold had his winning song “Where The Music Takes You” hit #10 on the Billboard Dance Charts. Darrell Scott, winner of the country category of the 2005 USA Song writing Competition had his winning song cut by award winning country singer Faith Hill. The 2010 winner in the instrumental category, Christopher Tinn won two Grammy awards in 2011. Judges include A&R managers from record labels such as Warner, Capitol Records, Universal, BMG/SONY Music.

Songs may be entered in 15 different categories including Pop, Rock/Alternative, R&B and Country. Entries are accepted from now through May 31, 2013. For more information, visit: http://www.songwriting.net

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