To submit music for consideration for Brony Music Spotlight, follow these instructions.

PM me* in a new personal conversation using the following guidelines.

*While I am currently the only evaluator for Brony Music Spotlight, this may change in the future. If that ends up being the case, this entry will be edited to reflect the change.

1. Message Subject: The Message Subject should have a BMS tag ([bMS]) at the beginning, followed by the track name. Examples:

[bMS] Smile Smile Smile (Metal Cover)

[bMS] Daddy Discord

[bMS] Feld0, King of the Woodwinds

Your name, and any contributing artists' names, including any artist whose track you're remixing, must not be in the message subject, unless that's explicitely a defining factor of difference from a track you're remixing or part of the actual track's title. If your track "features" someone (such as Silva Hound's "Hooves Up High"), they must be included in the Artist Name(s) field. If you're remixing a song and inclusion of your name is necessary to differentiate it from the original, you may put it the message subject. Examples:

[bMS] Hooves Up High

[bMS] Discord (The Living Tombstone's Remix)

[bMS] Babs Seed [Anorax Remix]

If you hit the Message Body character limit, just put in as much as you can. Don't truncate or reformat your track's title.

2. Message Body: The message body must contain the following information.

Artist Name(s):

Track Name:

Remix Source (If it's a remix of either a musical piece from the show or another artist's work, preferably provided as a link if the latter):

Link to your track:

The message body may also contain the following.

Artist Website (just one, whichever you use most):

Twitter handle (I tweet all BMS blog posts, so put your Twitter handle in the message if you want to be @mentioned):

Your comments on the track:

For the Artist Name(s) field, the names of all contributing artists must be present. If you worked with vocalists, guitarists, other producers, they must be credited as well. If you've remixed a song from another artist, that artist must be included in this field as well. If you can, try to clarify who did what role in the comments section of your submission.

3. Format: Your track must be hosted on a site that allows music to be streamed. YouTube, SoundCloud, or Pony.fm are preferred, because they allow me to post the track embedded onto the blog post rather than a link. Do not post directly to MP3s. Do not post any track that may be taken down. Tracks found to no longer have working links at any point in time will have their BMS blog entries deleted. If you find that your track has been taken down through no fault of your own, PM me with an updated link as soon as possible to avoid your entry's removal from BMS.

4. Time delay: Please wait two weeks between submissions. Any submission that is less than two weeks from the submission prior will be immediately deleted.

5. Music Production Guidelines: Guidelines for music are as follows:

1. Music from any genre is acceptable, as long as the genre itself does not conflict with any other submission criteria. All submissions will be judged objectively.
   
2. The music must be cleanly and clearly produced. Recordings should be reasonably free of distortion, hum, clicks, pops, or other unintentional audio artifacts. Volume levels should be normal compared to the average recording.
   
3. Production must show significant attention to sound quality, production values, mixing, mastering, and utilization of effects. Synthesized and sampled elements must be reasonably sophisticated. General MIDI sounds from low-budget soundcards are not sufficient when superior samples are available online for free. Chiptunes are an exception, but will still be judged according to all other criteria. Monophonic, unprocessed chiptune tracks are discouraged and may be subject to direct rejection. Submissions should be mixed with regard to volume, panning, and effects so that individual elements are clear and an appropriate sense of space is maintained.
   
4. Overusing common presets, relying heavily on prerecorded loops, or employing nothing but basic tones is discouraged. Tracks should consist primarily of music created by you. Covers/remixes may use elements from the covered track, such as samples from the original show or artist-provided stems, and may follow the composition of the covered/remixed piece, but the majority of the piece still must be created by you, and in a way that substantially differentiates it from the original. Extensive use of prerecorded loops or musical pieces either provided with your DAW, by others, or from any outside sources will result in track rejection.
   
5. Instrumental and vocal performances should be recorded clearly. Performances should be well-executed with regard to tone, pitch and rhythm.
   
6. Remixes and covers should have the source clearly identifiable and recognizable.
   
7. In summary, all tracks will be judged to a fairly high standard. If you don't feel your music is at that level, please consider posting it in the Fan Music section of Octavia's Hall instead.
   

6. Evaluation: All tracks will be evaluated in the order they are received. Upon evaluation, one of two things will happen:

1. Acceptance: Your track will be posted in a blog entry along with all of the information included in your message body, followed by BMS's critique of the track.
   
2. Rejection: A PM will be sent to you in response to your original submission with BMS's critique of the track, highlighting reasons why the track is below the bar and suggestions for how it could be improved.
   

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment on this blog post.