Nashville Artists and Execs Sign On For Unsigned Only Competition

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Wynonna, Hunter Hayes, Craig Morgan, Dustin Lynch, BMLG’s Allison B. Jones, Sony Music Nashville’s Lisa Ramsey Perkins and Word Label Group’s Josh Bailey are among the artists and executives that have signed on to be judges and mentors for the Unsigned Only Music Competiton. Unsigned Only was created by the same team that organized the International Songwriting Competition (ISC).

Unsigned Only is designed for solo artists, bands, and singers who are not signed to a major label record company or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or imprints. The deadline for entry is March 14, 2013.

2013 judges include: Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders); Cyndi Lauper; Iggy Pop; Carly Simon; John Oates (Hall & Oates); Eve; 3 Doors Down; Neon Trees; Brandi Carlile; Manchester Orchestra; Black Francis (The Pixies); Ryan Bingham; David Crowder; Morgan; Robert Smith (The Cure); Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC); Of Monsters and Men; Wynonna; Faith Evans; Aaron Shust; Kirko Bangz; Hayes; G. Love; Jason Gray; Lynch; The Mountain Goats; Anthony DeCurtis (Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone); Josh Jackson (Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Paste Magazine); Vanessa Satten (Editor-In-Chief, XXL Magazine); Christopher Weingarten (Senior Editor, Spin); and Chris Richards (Pop Music Critic, The Washington Post)

Mentors include Monte Lipman (President of Universal Republic); Pete Ganbarg (Executive VP/Head of A&R, Atlantic Records); Shawn Holiday (Senior VP of A&R, RCA Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing); Bailey; Kim Stephens (President, Forward Entertainment and A&R/Capitol Music Group); Jones; Perkins; Dre McKenzie (Head of A&R, G-Unit Records); and more to be announced.

Winners will be announced in 10 categories in July 2013. The categories include:

AA (Adult Album Alternative)
AC (Adult Contemporary)
Christian
Country
Folk/Singer-Songwriter
R&B/Hip-Hop
Rock
Pop/Top 40
Teen (for artists 18 years old and younger)
Vocal Performance

The grand prize winner will receive $10,000, one-on-one mentoring from a team of record label executives and 50 sets of D’Addario strings. The first place winner in each category will receive $1,000 and 50 sets of D’Addario strings.

For more information, visit http://www.unsignedonly.com/

Jessica Nicholson
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