American Songwriter

"American Singer-Songwriter and Acoustic Guitar Contest" would be a more accurate title. While they do say "Songs will be evaluated based on lyrics, melody, and various other musical considerations," they do not detail what "other musical considerations" are. I did not do an extensive evaluation of 2021's "Top 50 Songs," but a spot check of half a dozen or so revealed they were all singer-acoustic guitar mellow. Will "The always popular annual Holiday Bonus: '100+ More Songs We Absolutely Love'" include other genres? We'll see on Dec 20. In their favor though, they did screen both of my songs, and sent an email at the time. YouTube stats appear to confirm.

I am very dissatisfied. I should have read the reviews before I entered last year. Now they have taken fifty three dollars out of my checking account for a yearly membership which I did not apply for. Their customer service will not reply to me. Stay away from this company.

I entered their lyric contest & never received a confirmation email that I was entered into the contest. But they definitely charged my credit card. Their contest is a scam. They will steal your money and lyrics. Unless you're a red headed male who lives in the south, It's a scam. Look at the comments from their Instagram page. Once they get your money they don't even say "thank you for your payment" nor will they let you know who the winner is. They do not respond to comments, questions, or emails once they have your money. They are preying on starving artists. In this day an age there is no excuse for not even sending a form email confirming if they even received your songs. Just say no to this crap.

As long as your songs or lyrics glorify LGBTQ you are the winner and the king. I wonder if they do that by choice or just simply forced to comply. They don't even realize how many young minds they infect by their actions.

I'm sadden by the people they chose for the July august contest I feel that my work was completely look over and threw to the side because of the context nothing sexual or gang related but that shouldn't matter its a song writing contest a song is a song but $30 gone and no response from these people about anything I don't even hate to say it see any black creators wining these contest at all if you look thru the winners list all white winners with poor taste in song writing just look threw them and you will see its very unfortunate that a space where I felt I can come and express my art and get a fair chance to get some kind of response good or bad I just feel like I've been bamboozled and its not a good feeling for someone who is hungry for this. (You live and you learn)

This magazine has several lyric contests every year. I decided to enter it a few months ago. I NEVER received a reply from them indicating that they received my money or lyrics. I waited a month and decided to contact them. I was told that they never received anything from me! NO money and NO lyrics! When I told them that my bank indicated that they received my money I told them to send me a refund since they claimed that they never received anything. As soon as they heard the word " refund " they suddenly changed their story and said that, yes, they did receive my lyrics but they can't give me a refund because they already " reviewed " it. When I asked them why wasn't I ever informed about the status of my entries or money, the idiots told me that it's their policy to ONLY inform the " winners " and NOT everyone else in the contest! So in other words, these idiots have absolutely NO accountability or acknowledgment of the lyrics that they are supposed to " review ". They can simply throw them in the garbage and pocket the contestants money! After the Better Business Bureau made SEVERAL ATTEMPTS to contact them they finally replied to them but lied about the problem and refused to issue a refund. This is a very shady magazine. Never enter any of their song or lyric contests.

I never like writing bad reviews, but do so when I feel something is shady. I don't trust people or groups that aren't fair & try to take someone's money even when they make a mistake. They had posted in the rules (that I later saw after submitting to the 2021 song contest) that the deadline was at 12/1/2021 11:59 CST but the page that the link lead me to the song contest (at the last minute) had 11:59 PST & a countdown clock right under the ad video, so when I submitted I beat the clock & PST deadline time. Well, my 3 songs never got reviewed & when I asked them why they responded I did not submit them before the CST deadline so the system automatically rolled them over to the 2022 song contest. Also, their system automatically added the membership into my cart during a time I didn't catch until after I got the receipt for payment so you got to be always looking out for those automatically added products into your cart because their system kept adding products to my cart that I kept removing so this is a trick they got going on to catch those not paying attention. Then they'll go with their rule about never giving refunds no matter what. Well, I requested a refund directly from them 3 times & they would not even respond after their email about me submitting at the deadline cutoff. Even after I uploaded pictures of their PST deadline on their page & proof their system kept adding products into my cart automatically that was misleading and or wrong. I ended up opening a case through my payment company & not until then did they refund. So if you are having refund problems from people or groups like this, open a case with your payment company because if you're right & they are wrong like in my case, they won't refund without asking a 3rd party to step in which in my book is an unfair all about money group you can't trust. They refunded within 24 hours of me opening a case against them. Songwriters beware. How can you trust them with your new material if they're going to steal your money? Believe me, I got the picture proof but don't think I should post due to copyright laws. Not sure I can post pictures from their website. I did get a full refund 2 days ago from them after I filed the claim from P''''P"""" company.