Bré (who has remained silent so far) did hint a while back now at some kind of spin-off event taking place soon, but didn’t hint at what it was, but given the timing, it is probably just a Halloween spin-off. I do enjoy participating in the occasional spin-off when it comes to Worldvision, Masquerade or other themed events, but I know that these are also hard to organise based upon willing and available volunteers.

We did Halloween last year, no? So the Xmas spin-off should be coming this year by logic

I've been up and down with my feelings about the contest throughout my 6-ish years in it. But I will say that I have really been enjoying the contest a lot again this year! I've really loved all of my entries and think they're some of my best ever (despite their varying degrees of success). I would say I think I enjoy it more than when I started because I am much less stressed about how my entries do. I am purely excited to share the songs I decide on and hope that they resonate with at least one person, because that's enough for me.

I picked that I enjoy it about the same. I'm not sure that comes across at all since I don't post much in here. But I'm 9+ years in and BJSC has become the main way I keep up with new music, aside from the charts of course. I barely seek out music on my own anymore so I rely on this a lot as a monthly playlist for me. Usually my top 15 are all keepers and I save them all to my own Spotify playlists, and I love ranking my favorite discoveries at the end of each year.

 

My own entries have their ups and downs, but with my success rate (or lack thereof) I can usually appreciate any result I get as long as it's not a DNQ. :lol: I expect to take a break from this at some point, because it is such a time commitment. But like I said, I'm so invested in hearing the songs that I'd still listen to the playlists even if I'm not competing.

I voted yes I enjoy it more than I did when I first joined because whilst I liked listening to a list of songs to begin with, it was of course very early days and also my first year was... not on the level it has been on and off for the past 6 and 1/2 years now and clearly now especially with the 3 wins within a year. I do find myself lacking the energy to listen to the entries every month but it is worth it when I find the overall songs/selection very strong or solid.

 

So I do think my enjoyment is definitely much better than it was to start with but there are waves in between!

I think I still enjoy the contest more or less the same since I first started. Yeah, there have been months where I have wished I just pulled out because of time issues (May, June and November have always been difficult because of exams 😅), but overall I don’t regret participating. This contest has now become one of my main places where I get new music from. Which I’m very thankful for.

 

Also:

 

Bré (who has remained silent so far) did hint a while back now at some kind of spin-off event taking place soon, but didn’t hint at what it was, but given the timing, it is probably just a Halloween spin-off. I do enjoy participating in the occasional spin-off when it comes to Worldvision, Masquerade or other themed events, but I know that these are also hard to organise based upon willing and available volunteers.

 

🎵Soon🎵

No, nowhere near as much sadly, but that's entirely me, not the contest itself, I actually really like the way the contest is now. I really enjoyed it in 2016 when I joined, I was in my first year of uni- basically I had so much more free/ flexible time compared to now. I listened to a lot more music generally too, which while it hurts to say, I find it hard to find time to listen anywhere near as much as I used to. I still whack on an album whenever I'm driving or sometimes on a day off etc but I used to listen for 4+ hours a day, easily, if not more.

 

I work long hours during school term time, a minimum of (give or take) 55-60 hours most weeks, it can be even more on the worst weeks, and it includes at least two evenings a week and occasionally chunks of weekends. It's my choice, I get decent benefits from it, I know what I've got into and I know I can't do it long term, but there's a reason the maximum 48 hour work week exists (which I had to sign a waiver for) and the time I get to listen to music (ironically, because I mostly work in a music department) is one of the things impacted by the amount of time I don't have.

 

When it comes to BJSC, it does make contests of 60+ songs hard to manage. I used to be able to do passive listenthroughs, where I'd have it in the background and subconsciously got to know the songs, then more active ones where I was thinking more about the song, I really have to focus on first listenthrough now which makes it less of a casual experience. In 2016 for my first few contests (even though I had a horrific DNQ streak!) I'd listen to every song at least 3 times and listen to the ones I liked more and probably both semis, I'm sad I miss DNQs from the other semi now but a lot of the time it's difficult enough to set the time aside for my own semi. Now it's unlikely that I'll get through more than 1 listen per semi/ final with the exception of songs that really stand out to me, which usually get 2 or 3. I also used to be in all the spinoffs, Unknown Pleasures and Nuggets etc and I just can't now, I stay in the main contest because I like the discoveries and it's cool if I do well, even if that is super rare- it was amazing to see We Lost The Sea do so well out of the blue, was a great feeling.

 

I am considering entering instrumentals mind you, I'll have a think and see if I have something for it before the deadline closes.

I'm still sad we moved from Discord listenthroughs, I think if we really got it to work then I'd like to think they'd be a possibility again :) I'd also like to see an EOY activity where people just share their fave discoveries for each country (even if it ends up being "they all suck, maybe have better taste next year" or something like that)

I really like them, and honestly I think I've got it figured out. Don't know why I didn't do this in the first place but streaming Chrome (or any browser) as an application then literally just playing the YouTube playlist rather than using the slightly limited (by videos being unavailable on external plugins) YouTube plugin is so much better. Makes it pretty seamless IMO.

 

I'm really good with Discord- I use it more or less every day so although the audio channels are technically voice channels by default I've set up a channel specifically for it that mutes people as they join. It's probably a lot better on the desktop app than mobile but honestly I reckon it's the same for Synctube. It's just a case of who is available to host. While I'd be happy to do it and might be able to occasionally, like I said above I find it really hard to even make most listenthroughs these days because my work schedule is so demanding right now so I can't guarantee being reliable. But it's host's preference and it's fair that whoever's organising as host gets to choose the platform. That said, I'm more than happy to help out if anyone's interested in trying a discord host and is bit unsure of how to get it working first time though!

 

I barely seek out music on my own anymore so I rely on this a lot as a monthly playlist for me. Usually my top 15 are all keepers and I save them all to my own Spotify playlists, and I love ranking my favorite discoveries at the end of each year.

I've been considering doing this for a while, I should really add all my votes to a personal "best of BJSC X" playlist (which I've done for like, 2 :lol: )- it just seems a daunting task to go back and do for so many. Or even an 18s, 15s, 13s etc playlist over multiple contests. I will get round to sorting it out at some point though.

I'd say my absolute peak enjoyment was probably 2015 to 2016 when it was all shiny and new. I quickly became fixated and have a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of those early contests as I'd download the accompanying MP3 packs and give the songs tonnes of extra listens, being able to attribute the songs to the relevant artwork. I'd also re-read the results threads a lot as the initial novelty of the concept wouldn't wear off for a while. I'm quite a visual learner so still remember random things from the early days like associating BJSC 83 with purple and green heart emojis as those were the relevant graphics, I copied those over to my votes and recall all of those songs I voted for as a result :lol: I think 2016 was my most successful year ever also with 6 top 10s and quite a good variety within that success (Spanish cheesy pop, witch house, synthwave, trip hop etc). I was also 17, still in sixth form, when I first signed up so had a lot more free time to dedicate to BJSC.

 

I still have a lot of love for the contest and have never missed a main edition or spin-off since signing up (and plan on keeping it that way!) but it's difficult to match up to that initial super enthusiasm. Long may it exist though - I do love all of the discoveries, fun competition and also introducing others to songs they enjoy too.

I went for no, but like others the reason isn’t really the contest itself. My main enjoyment always used to be discovering something and then hoping that it would resonate well with others. Although Headache would recently fit into that category, I don’t generally have the time these days to dig out new music in the same way that I used to - either that or I no longer know how to find it efficiently - which actually may be the real problem now I’ve typed it out.

 

I also don’t really find much to keep from the contest these days. It’s rare that any of the songs stay on my playlist for long after the contest and I really would struggle to even list what’s won over the past few years. That said, occasionally a song majorly sticks like I Do This All The Time and it ends up being my favourite of the year.

Reading all the comments from members who have been doing this for years is interesting. It's only been a few months, so it feels fresh. It's almost a science trying to understand the tastes (different blocs, who knew) on here and deciding whether to send something I love that is unlikely to have broad appeal (Scotland 2 does this with finesse), or be more strategic and find something that is less about my taste and more about what I think will succeed (this isn't as fun, and I have mostly trip myself up doing this). Of course, ideally, there is a middle ground. There doesn't seem to be a right answer so far, and I definitely overthink it every time — but it's a hoot.

 

 

I answered no. I agree with what Dandy said in that I don't spend much time now looking for entries that I think might do well so maybe the songs I send aren't as good as they might be if I looked harder and although I enjoy much of the music that gets sent by others to the contest, there's little that I would really want to listen to again.

 

I do prefer the other song contests as I know everyone will hear my song as we're not split into semi-finals and everyone has an equal chance of winning which is not really the case in the main contest where the pop songs are more likely to reach the final compared to anything a bit alternative. It's also a bit frustrating when the list of entries comes out and people say they know about ten of them already. Those of us who try to find something a bit more obscure are already at a disadvantage.

 

I have thought about no longer taking part over the last year. I have entries chosen for the next two contests so maybe I'll stop at the end of this year. We do get about twelve spin-offs or other forum contests going on each year so I'll still have one contest per month to take part in which is more than enough for me.