Another year of the Art-Inspired Music Contest has come to a close. If you haven't seen the results yet, check out the thread here. There's a link to the spreadsheet with all the results at the bottom of the post, along with some info on what some of the labels and tabs mean.

Last week, I put the compilation album up on Bandcamp, which you can listen to here!

This was a very big year for AIM - the largest compo I've organized thus far with 118 entries, which is HUGE compared to last year's 82. Unfortunately, I was also very busy and also a little burned out as I was still working on helping out with the AIM 2023 CD prizes up until around February of this year.

The entries for AIM 2024 were pretty great - what I really love most about large compos is seeing the wide variety of styles that come from composers whose work I have familiarity with to composers who I never heard of until they entered this very compo.

There were a lot of entries this year that I felt like I needed a lot of time to really listen to and appreciate, whereas I felt like last year, there were more entries that i felt like I instantly connected with on the first listen. I don't think either of these scenarios are better than the other, and part of why it may have taken me longer this year was because I had a lot else going on irl and had to spend more time listening to a larger pool of entries.

Honourable Mentions

In every AIM, there's always so much talent that I hear in submissions and this year, the competition was quite tight. Thus, I want to highlight just a few entries that I really loved that didn't win.

Nechromatic by @Nechromatic

I think this was the entry I was most surprised didn't make the top 20. I really love the way this track develops these seemingly disjointed notes at the beginning and joins them together with the vocal samples and droning bass in a way that pulls me in. The way it musically conveyed the art was very striking - having this sort of alluring feeling that slowly ramps up in intensity that I felt really connected.

G0ner by @sleepFacingWest

This track nailed the look and feeling of the art and the tune is an absolute banger. My only complaint is that I wish the vocals were louder. While I am aware of the intention to make the vocals blend in with the accompaniment, I feel like this would have been more effective if the vocals were actually used more like an instrument rather than having actual lyrics and melodies that are clearly meant to be the centrepiece. Regardless, I love the melody, especially in the chorus and the way that little piano line follows the end of each chorus line just brings it all together.

Failure of a Fanatic by @Kalviter

This is...probably my favourite Kalviter AIM entry, at the very least up there with Galactic Glitter. The distant bass and pads (choir?) work as a strange pairing with the vocals. I found it interesting that the vocals kind of sounded indifferent while rapping about not being ready for this character's "pain of indifference". The backing track really makes this work for me, but I do like the vocals in this, especially the distorted filtered vocals at 1:30. (Hopefully this composer posts the lyrics soon!)

Night Sky by @MusicBySpektral

This track is all vibes and honestly, I really love the vibes. I also feel like the atmosphere here nails the "purple" in the art and I'm not sure why. Could just be visual bias but I thought it conveyed the art well. It is definitely more of a track I'd rather just sit back and relax to. But yeah, I love the sound design, I love the repeating arp pattern and the bassline that descends. It's just a great chill track.

Pond Enjoyer by @Siberg

Speaking of vibe tracks, this entry was definitely one that I replayed a lot. The lead-up to that bassline entering is always satisfying and that melody perfectly encapsulates this nighttime with lights scene. I think it does a great job at keeping the melody floating around while not always making it the centre, if that makes any sense. Like it just knew how to give just enough of that main melody, which does appear frequently, but it's not always like constantly at the forefront. Anyway, this track is another great relaxing listen.

A Lifetime Later by @masterakuma99

This entry is so cozy and comforting and really encapsulates the feeling of being in like a cottage out in a field. I love the setup with the acoustic guitar and the those soft bells that play off it later in the track. Definitely my favourite AIM entry from masterakuma99 thus far.

Good Things Come in Twos

There were a lot of people who showed up with two entries this year, which is amazing and surprising how many people managed to put together some great tracks, some of which were done in quite a short amount of time. I wanted to highlight two particular composers who produced two entries that I think were amazing (and didn't get into the top 20).

@H20Silnava

Nadejda was the track I instantly loved. I thought the softer sort of sound design worked for the art's softer, lineless style while the melodies carried this underlying sense of urgency. It was also really neat hearing those warning siren sounds being used as percussive elements at the end of the track. This was another track that I thought had a great sense of "pull" to it - a musical focal point leading me into the centre of the art.

REDHOT was the slowburner, but I might come out the other end loving it more than Nadejda (not sure yet, but it's pretty close!). I particularly love how this track develops its melodic themes in a way that feels very satisfying from a structural standpoint. And that muted sort of sound with the harsher tones gives off this sense of heat, which works great for the art's glowing red palette.

@BASCUTI

SEEDS AND RAVENS has such a great guitar hook. It feels haunting and dark in a Halloween-like way and the composition really conveyed that art style well. I also love the second section that follows that main sort of melody with that sort of step-wise pattern ascending with the bells I think (it was kind of hard to tell, but still great nonetheless).

TOKYO 606 was a track when I first listened to, I was like "what the heck is this". And then I realized that I couldn't get parts of it out of my head. The development in this is tight - I don't think a single section in this is wasted and the way it hits with all the punches, composition-wise, left a very large impression on me.

Under the Hood

I used Google Sheets this year to keep track of all the entries and their scores. As much as I liked using Airtable in 2023 for its easy ability to link and ensure data is always connected, it's hard to get people used to new platforms they typically aren't used to being on. The added obstacle was that Airtable's free plan only allows for like, 3 other people to be on it at most and I was hoping to have more than 4 judges, but sadly was not the case.

The one thing that I always worry about with Google Sheets or Excel is keeping all the data synchronized in a way that is also easy for the judges to understand and use. Like I could have had all the judges use just one sheet for the scores, which would have made it a lot easier for my basic understanding of spreadsheet formulas. But also, all the other judges would see each others' scores all the time and if not set up properly, it would be very easy to accidentally go and put your rating in the wrong entry or under the wrong judge from what you intended. So I tried to do it kind of similar to what I did with Airtable last year:

1. All data for the entries and their inspirations go on one tab - Entry title, Composer name, links, Art inspirations, etc.
2. For each entry, I have a column in which I will approve or disapprove the entries (if there's something that doesn't follow the rules of the compo).
3. Each judge gets their own tab. If an entry is Approved, then that entry is displayed with yellow highlighting next to the scores.
4. If an entry is Disqualified, then there is no yellow highlighting and the entry's name is striked and greyed out. The links also do not display for entries that are not Approved to prevent a judge from accidentally visiting the track and trying to evaluate it.

I also set up a different spreadsheet for the Master list in which I consistently sync a filtered list of any Approved entries. This way, if someone changes their username, I only need to update the Entry Data spreadsheet instead of going through 5+ tabs updating data, and the Master list is continuously updated (sometimes I have to do it myself with the refresh button, but still).

The only time in which I did end up replacing the formulas with their data is in the Final Judge Scores tab at the very end. Leading up to the end of the judging period, this sheet was also performing a VLOOKUP of each judge's scores and pulling it into this sheet. Because I'm paranoid, I duplicated the formula sheet before replacing the formulas with the values, just in case.

Ultimately, I was pretty satisfied with this setup but it does take more thinking on the formulas to use and how to set everything up. Sadly I didn't get a chance to see who was the most popularly used artist this year, but I did do some light calculations that I later deleted at one point to check. :(

Reviews

For reviews, I did use the same ClickUp system as last year - the only difference was that I changed the status names from "First Thoughts", etc. to "First Session", "Second Session", etc. I tracked my time while listening to the entries, taking notes and writing reviews. For this year, I am coming up with a total of 19 hours and 49 minutes, which was definitely way below the almost 49 hours I took reviewing all 82 entries last year.

The judges this year were a big help in also being a part of the reviewing process, and I put together a Review Tracking tab to help keep track of which entries we were reviewing in an attempt to ensure we don't just review the exact same tracks all the time.

Speaking of which, if you are looking for a review for your entry, please check the Review Tracking tab of the results spreadsheet to see which judge wrote a review for you. This would either be shown as Review in Progress or Review Completed with the column for each designated judge. If there is a judge that has marked your entry as such, please feel free to reach out to that judge directly.

If you do not hear back from them or no judge has reviewed your track, then you can let me know. I did not get the time to write reviews for every single entry this year, but I did take some notes on all of them that I can share. They won't be as detailed as a review but they can still give you an idea as to what my thoughts were when I was rating your entry.

Closing Thoughts

I'm looking forward to next year's compo, but I'm still looking forward to having a longer break where I don't need to have something about it constantly on my mind like AIM 2023 and the CDs. Not that I hated the CD prize; I just wish that I had gone about delegating some of the tasks for it when the opportunity arose. Shoutout to @Everratic and @LD-W for the SoundPaint gift card recommendation.

If I had to mention a couple of things I would change off the top of my head, it would probably be these:

• Judge art inspirations - This was based on a question one of the composers asked and it caught me off guard. Which is weird, because I did think about it before the compo but I didn't really have time to be like "make a decision on it". Ultimately I'm not really fond of the idea of using art by a judge as an inspiration, but I just think logistically, it would be difficult to have this be a permanent rule in the compo just because it's hard to find judges in the first place - most of the judges aren't set until very close to when the compo actually starts and it wouldn't really be fair if someone picked a piece of art far in advance (which is allowed) only to find out that artist is going to be a judge.
• DM'ing to get more judges - I've mostly just been setting an announcement and waiting for people to message me, and I find that it's more difficult to find people to judge this compo each year. I mean, I get it - it's so time-consuming and there's a lot of other music compos going on. But I would probably message at least a few people who have judged previous Newgrounds compos to see if they'd be interested in judging AIM. It would be nicer to get more judges on the panel and do more of an average of scores instead of totals.

If there's anything you wanted to share about this year's AIM, then let me know. Otherwise, see you 'round for AIM 2025!

This post contains the rules and timeframe for the 2024 Art-Inspired Music Contest.

The submissions period is now CLOSED and the results have been released! See the results here: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1537077

Links

• Fan Vote Thread - Listen and vote for your favourite entries for the Fan Favourite winner in AIM 2024!
• Approved Entries Playlist - Play through all AIM 2024 entries eligible for judging
• Submissions Thread - The thread where participants would submit their entries. It is also a place where main announcements and updates about the contest are posted.
• Discussions Thread - Ask questions and leave comments here about the contest!
• #aim-general channel - An invite to the #aim-general channel in the NG Audio Pub Discord, where you can also ask questions and chat about the contest.
• Newgrounds Art Portal
• Newgrounds Audio Guidelines
• Master List - A spreadsheet containing links to AIM 2024 entries and their art for easier reference

Timeframe

All times are in PST. Please note that due to the long timeframe and general volume of entries, extensions cannot be granted for the submissions period.

• Submissions Period: Friday, April 19th at 12:00 AM - Monday, June 17th at 11:59 PM. A 1 week, 24 hour and 1 hour notice will be posted in the submissions thread.
• Judging Period: Tuesday, June 18th - TBD depending on the amount of entries. Generally 3-4 weeks, but the submissions thread will have occasional posts with updates regarding the progress of judging.
• Fan Voting Period: Same as Judging Period. Once the judging concludes, the Fan Vote will close 24 hours after.

Rules

Please review the rules before starting your entry and double-check them before submitting, even if you're a returning participant.

General Rules

1. You must be at least 13 or over to enter.
2. You must be a scouted musician. This is for anti-fraud purposes. For more information on how the scouting process works, please review the Audio Portal Questions section of the Newgrounds FAQ.
3. Read the title of a thread before posting! The submissions thread is only for submitting your entries to the contest, and the discussions thread is for any non-submission related conversation. Non-submission related posts in the submissions thread are subject to removal.

Submission (Entry) Rules

1. This contest is for original works only. Covers, remixes, mashups, etc. are not allowed. 
2. Entries must be started and finished within the submissions period. Entries created and/or started outside of the submissions period (that is, when the submissions thread was posted) are not allowed.
3. Your entry must be uploaded on Newgrounds, suited for the "Music" format when uploading audio, posted in the submissions thread and following the Newgrounds Audio Portal guidelines.
4. Your entry may contain explicit content suitable for up to the M content rating, i.e. E, T and M. No A-rated entries are allowed.
5. Entries must be between 3-6 minutes in length. Generally, entries up to 15 seconds outside of the range will be accepted, but anything hitting exactly 15 seconds outside that range may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The organizer will have the final say in whether an entry is too long or short to be accepted for the contest. Your best bet is to be right within the 3-6 minute range.
6. Each participant may submit up to 2 different entries. These cannot be two versions of the same entry, e.g. same composition with different instruments.
7. Samples can only be used if they are a) within Audio Portal guidelines, and b) reworked in a way that is original. For example: You cannot take pre-recorded lyrics from a vocal pack, transpose them and compose accompaniment to go along with it. However, chopping up a vocal line and using a small part of it for a percussive effect in an original composition is allowed.
8. You can work with anyone, whether it be a singer, producer, etc. Bands are allowed, too! If they have an NG account, tag them in the project system, or if not, credit them in the description of your song(s). Keep in mind, only one person gets the prize (unless it can be split equally).
9. Entries must be posted in the submissions thread by June 17, 2024 at 11:59 PM PST. Posts must contain a link to your entry and, at minimum, a link to your art inspiration in the Author Comments of your audio submission OR in your submissions post, though both would be preferred! If your art is multi-image, please also specify which image you are using for your inspiration! (see Art Inspiration Rules - point 4)
10. Updates to your already submitted entries are permitted within the submissions period, but not during the judging period. If you update your entry, please mention it in the discussions thread or DM me. This contest receives a lot of entries and some judges may begin evaluating entries as they are being submitted to stay ahead of the curve.

Art Inspiration Rules

1. Your art inspiration must come from the Newgrounds Art Portal.
2. Only E, T or M rated art is allowed, i.e. no A-rated art.
3. Only one art piece can be used as inspiration per entry. If you are inspired by other pieces of art, you may mention them in your Author Comments, but must clearly indicate the "main" inspiration that will be used to evaluate your entry in the Relevance to Art category. 
4. An image from a multi-image artwork is allowed, but you must specify which image in the set was used by mentioning the number (from the top or left) and/or linking the specific image by copying the direct image URL. If unspecified, the first loaded image will be assumed as your main inspiration - that is, the topmost image or the leftmost (the one that loads in large view in the gallery first). 
5. You may not use art by any of the judges (@Quarl, @AED-4, @Tangerine and myself - @Random-storykeeper) as inspiration for your entry.

FAQs

You can ask questions or clarification in the Discussions thread or in the #aim-general channel of the NG Audio Pub Discord. Some notes based on FAQs from past compos are posted below. I may add more to here if additional questions recur.

• Only your entry needs to be created within the submissions period. The art inspiration can be something that was published before the submissions period or it can be from within the submissions period. Likewise, the artist for the art inspiration does not need to be scouted, only the participant submitting an entry.
• You should try to reach out to the artist you want to use as your inspiration, but if you are only being musically inspired by their work, you do not need to get permission (in the case that they are unreachable, for example). However, you should get permission from the artist if you want to use their work to promote your music, e.g. using it as cover art, sharing it in a video containing your song, etc.

Prizes

First Place

• $100 USD Soundpaint gift card
• Inclusion in the AIM 2024 compilation album on the AIM Bandcamp

Second Place

• $75 USD Soundpaint gift card
• Inclusion in the AIM 2024 compilation album on the AIM Bandcamp

Third Place

• $50 USD Soundpaint gift card (donated by @iweihs)
• Inclusion in the AIM 2024 compilation album on the AIM Bandcamp

Runner-Ups/Fan Favourite

• Inclusion in the AIM 2024 compilation album on the AIM Bandcamp

Composers, it is time to dive into the Art Portal and put our inspirations into music as the 11th Art-Inspired Music Contest is starting next month!

The Art-Inspired Music Contest (AIM) is a yearly competition that runs on Newgrounds. Composers pick a piece of art from the Newgrounds Art Portal and create a track inspired by that work of art. A panel of judges evaluate the submissions and the winning 20 entries (top 3 + 17 runner-ups) are included in a compilation album on the Art-Inspired Music Bandcamp!

The submissions period for AIM 2024 will be open from April 19th and close on June 17th. Times will be in PST, but the official start of the contest will be determined by the posting of the submissions thread (to be done in the Audio Forums. A link will also be shared at the top of this news post!).

Right now, this is a time to start thinking about what art you may want to use as inspiration for your entry, but DO NOT start working on your entry until the submissions thread is posted.

This is also a time to start considering if you'd like to be a part of the judging panel for this year's compo or contribute some prizes.

Judges and Prizes

We are currently looking for users to help judge the submissions and contribute prizes for the compo.

Judges

We normally have 3 judges per compo (plus me), but I would love to have a couple more judges on hand this year if possible.

Judges will be responsible for listening to and evaluating all approved entries during the submissions period to help determine the winners. The official judging period starts once the submissions period ends (June 17), but you can also start listening to the entries as they come in.

Prizes

We are looking for some prize donations or suggestions. Something along the lines of a cash pool, product keys, etc.

Rules

The rules of the contest will be shared with the submissions thread. You can see a list of last year's rules here if you want to have an idea of what they will be like. Most of these rules, if not all, should still be the same, but there will most likely be some adjustments in regards to the Art Portal now allowing multiple images to be uploaded under one link.

I haven't completely decided how to handle this yet. Previously, multiple art inspirations for one entry were not allowed and I think I would like to keep it so that only one art link can be used as inspiration per entry. The same art can be used for multiple different submissions, but a submission cannot have more than one inspiration. This is mainly for judging purposes in which "Art Relevance" is a scoring factor and part of having a higher score, imo, is how much inspiration one can draw from a specific piece of art. If more than one inspiration (for the purposes of this contest) were allowed for one entry, it would create issues in regards to composers picking and choosing elements from multiple pieces of art to use as inspiration for their one track. Of course outside of the compo, this is not a bad thing at all, but for the purposes of AIM, it just muddies things a little too much.

The main challenge with the multiple images on one art link is that there doesn't seem to be a way to share a specific image within that art link - it always defaults to the first image. The other challenge is when comics are used as inspiration. In the past, a single page would often be presented as an inspiration (which in of itself has multiple pictures within their panels) - but I'm not sure if I would want to encourage or allow an entire comic to become the inspiration, as I see comics being a bit more like videos, with a sequential sort of narrative and I would preferably like to stick to stills or a fixed scene with some light/simple animation.

I'm currently considering the following options:

1. Disallow any multi-image inspirations to be used for AIM.
2. Allow multi-image inspirations to be used for AIM, but not allow multi-page comics. For art with multiple images, the first image that loads when viewing the art link would be considered the inspiration that is judged.

I'll have to think more about this and will likely update this post as I have or hear more thoughts on this matter.

Questions?

If you have any general questions or feedback regarding AIM, feel free to share in the comments below. Thanks and hope to see you participate!

AIM 2023 is basically done at this point and I am about as happy with how the compo went as I am relieved that it's over. As much as I enjoy hosting and judging, it is very time-consuming - in fact, I have numbers to show for the amount of time that was spent on the review part alone. But I felt like for this compo, I was more familiar with all the entries than I have ever been in any previous AIM. Most AIMs, I would maybe listen to entries a few times on a whim. This AIM, I probably listened to every entry at least 10 times in their entirety, if not more.

The biggest feat I managed to accomplish this AIM was reviewing every approved entry - yes, all 82 of them. Past AIMs, I'd be fortunate enough to get maybe 30 reviews if I pushed really hard. This time around, I managed to do 82 in the span of a month-and-a-half and it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I also made some behind-the-scene changes, mainly to how I managed compo data and approached review writing. At my current job, I learned how to use some productivity software and basic databases and saw a way to try and incorporate these as a part of the AIM process, and I wanted to share a bit of how that happened in this post. But first, let's look at some entries that I think need more love.

AIM 2023 Favourites

I want to mention a few AIM entries that I thought were great or felt like a showcase of the composer's improvements compared to previous AIMs.

Honourable Mentions

In no particular order, here are some entries I love from this year:

Environments 2D by @Cresince

Honestly probably the entry I'm most disappointed didn't get into the top 20. I love the groove and the sound design is fantastic.

ACID RAIN by @Dry

Those guitar chords perfectly encapsulate a rainy scene. I love the panning effects in the melody, too.

sweat by @SamaadBae5

This just manages to be chill and also is surprisingly good music to work out to? At least that's how I felt when I worked and sweated to this tune.

Tower of Tech by @Irish-Soul

This came SO CLOSE to getting into the top 20. The composition in this track is so well-crafted, especially with how the melody develops.

Horizon by @underscore8298

The chord progression and the rising synths at the beginning are so beautiful. Sunvox for the win!

I'm Naut Dreaming by @TheRiskster

I'm here for this romantic, pretty theme about two lovers floating in outer space. This is a perfect piece to listen to if I want to chill at night.

Travel To The Far Side by @DigitalProdigy

When I heard the composer wanted this track to be removed from AIM, I was actually quite disappointed. I love DigitalProdigy's other two entries in AIM, but this one blew me away when I first heard it. I think it does a great job at capturing the rave against the blinding lights.

Winter by @Siberg

This is another former entry that I really loved that got removed and re-added during the judging period. It is probably one of my most replayed tracks when it was still in the compo, really just for that one higher melody line that sores above the driving bassline.

Most Improved

I think these two composers are the ones whose entries I was most impressed by this year.

@Anonymous-Frog - I like "Archdukes of the Machine" a lot. It struck the right balance of horror and musicality and it all worked together well. I don't remember much of your entry from last year, but I feel like this year, you definitely stepped up.

@DiosselMusic submitted two very nice entries this year that I think showed a lot of improvement. Both have great and different vibes.

Earworms

I wanted to shout out these two entries specifically for randomly getting stuck in my head at various points frequently while I was not judging.

Kubarium by @Dynamic0

Final Frontier by @TebyTheCat

Mass Review Writing

In previous AIMs, the biggest obstacle when it came to writing reviews was burnout. It was easier to find motivation right at the start of the judging period for those compos, but after a day or two, it would become tedious to do. From what I've read about people's previous experience with the compo, participants really wanted feedback on their work, a sentiment which I understand and would love to do. I was fortunate in past AIMs to have users who did take the time to review every entry and leave detailed notes on why they evaluated the things they did.

This year, I wanted to make sure I did my part and surprisingly, I didn't burn out during the entire course of writing 82 reviews. Here's what I did differently this time around:

Listening, Always

Pretty much since the approved playlist was created, I immediately started listening to it whenever I could. The best time was when I was on nights when I had to wash the dishes. I wrote out a few notes and even a few reviews just to stay ahead of the curve. This was probably the most optimal thing, although the kicker is that during this time, people could change or remove their entries. Still, the benefits definitely outweighed the drawbacks here and even if people did make changes, I could go into the judging period more familiar with entries that were submitted very early on rather than being completely unfamiliar with 80+ entries by the time the compo ended.

Productivity Platforms

When entries were submitted and approved, I would add them to a ClickUp board and set some statuses to determine stages at which I would listen and evaluate the entries. I believed it was important to have 2 separate listening sessions for every entry in addition to a time to listen and actually write the review. Here's a snippet of what the board looks like (most of the columns are empty now since everything got reviewed):

For me, my mood can sometimes affect the way I listen to certain tracks and I wanted to make sure I wasn't just writing a review influenced by that alone. Doing quick point-form notes, especially at the start when I could just immediately write anything I felt about the track, allowed me to take time later to parse through anything that confused me later on and hone in on the stuff that I was consistently thinking of or bringing up whenever I listened. It was also great because I could put my notes/review in the description while using the comments in the sidebar to copypaste the Author Comments and review them while I listen and write. Not sure how many know it, but I do like getting insight into how composers approach their work and I like to at least factor some of it into the review.

There was actually another big hindrance when it came to writing reviews, just overthinking what to write in regards to the tracks and separating a lot of initial feelings vs. analyzing the way a track makes me feel or how I think the elements of the track really interact to create an experience. Allowing time to let loose then filter really helped me to prepare a lot for the review writing itself.

Was it a bit much? Probably. But this is the only time I've written reviews for every entry in an AIM and this was the one thing that helped me do it, so I would take this is a personal accomplishment that I'm likely going to use for next year's compo.

Time-Tracking Stats

Oh yeah, another thing I did was I tracked time to see how long it took for me to do all the reviews.

• Total time spent on reviewing was 48 hours and 59 minutes. (This includes the note-taking as well as the review-writing itself.)
• Average time spent reviewing/note-taking for each entry: 36 minutes, with the shortest amount being 19 minutes and the longest being 59 minutes.

While I do like being able to write feedback, reviews are very time-consuming to create. I might be able to cut that time down a bit, though some entries give me more trouble than others. The best I can do is show that this is how I perceive the entry and to be more specific in terms of explaining what I feel works and what doesn't work. And I think that's the thing about reviews, especially here. I think they work best when they're seen as insight into that reviewer's perspective on your track.

Databases

I also used Airtable this year to keep track of entries as they came in, along with scores and Fan Votes. The thing I liked most about it was that I could format the same data and use it for different purposes within the database. For instance, after inputting the entry name, title and URL, that is one piece of data that supports a ton of different fields, from anything to the composer, the duration, even judge and fan scores. I could use a part of it for the Master List and another for the judges' score sheets. If someone happened to rename their entry, I just had to make one edit and boom, everything is now updated across the board. I also didn't have to worry if a judge decided to sort or move around columns, which was quite nice.

Another thing I liked a lot about this system was that it made it easier to determine stats as I could ensure everything was linked up properly and not worry about misplacing a formula at some point down the line. By linking up Artists to their Inspirations, for example, it was very easy to tell how many of an artist's works were used as inspiration for this particular compo.

Unfortunately, I think I didn't do a great job onboarding judges onto the base. I originally built an Interface to make it easier to focus on the scoring aspect without the rest of the tables getting in the way, but I didn't realize that inviting the judges there would actually just send them to the base instead of the Interface.

Anyway, here's a bit of what that base looks like. For the results, I duplicated this base and removed a lot of the parts that were used to check on entries and their art inspirations.

Next Year

I've thought about some things I'd want to do or try a bit differently for next year. One great thing, however, is that LD-W seems very likely to be a judge for AIM 2024 and that's a big load off my plate. But here are two thoughts I have for next year:

• Some more refinements to the scoring system. This is my second time doing scores for AIM and I think we might need to add something just so there's not so many ties. This could be adding another category for scores (not sure what though) or allowing a precision of 0.1. Or I could come up with a more consistent tiebreaker system. I don't really know yet.
• Distributing reviews among judges. It might help, as reviewing 82 entries really eats away at the time. The downside is that each participant only receives a review from 1, maybe 2 judges. But that seems par for the course compared to previous AIMs. It would certainly be a lot more feasible to get judging done on time, I think. It might also help if certain judges with more experience in reviewing in a particular aspect strongly, that judge might be able to offer perhaps more valuable insight compared to a judge who doesn't have much familiarity with that aspect.

But other than that, I'm tired.

I love being a part of this community and listening to a wide range of entries. It really makes me happy to read Author Comments about how people take time to ensure they make it to AIM and I'm appreciative of you all for sharing your music with me and with everyone else.

While I will continue to help out with getting the AIM 2023 album ready, I feel like I need a moment to focus on other aspects of my life that aren't AIM-related. I am going on a short trip at the end of the month, so I do have that to look forward to. I also really need to work on my sleep schedule because it absolutely sucks. I've made a habit of going out to the gym every morning at 6 AM but I still only get like 2-5 hours of sleep on workdays. Coffee can only help so much.

Thank you all again for being a part of AIM and making the contest something I get to look forward to every year. 💜

The submissions period is now over, but you can still view the submissions thread here: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1523981

As we near the end of March, the time for this year's Art-Inspired Music Contest (or AIM for short) draws near. This year is a special one as it marks the contest's 10th anniversary! (More details on this below.)

First off, let's go over what exactly AIM is about for those who may not be familiar.

Contest Info

AIM is an annual Newgrounds contest where composers create an original piece of music inspired by a work in the Art Portal. Entries are then evaluated by judges and the winning entries go into a compilation album, available on the AIM Bandcamp!

The contest operates in 3 main sections:

1. Preparation (now until April 21) - You can't start working on your entry yet, but you can search for art you'd like to use for your entry during this time. This is also a chance to think about whether you'd like to be a volunteer for the compo by becoming a judge, a promo artist or by donating some prizes.
2. **Submissions (April 21 - June 19) - This officially begins when I post the AIM 2023 Submissions thread in the Audio Forum (April 21). At this point, you are allowed to start working on your entry, up until the deadline of June 19.
3. Judging (June 19 - TBA) - The submissions period ends and the judges take time to go over the entries. Non-judges also have the chance to vote on their favourite track, which shows up as a bonus winner on the compilation album. There is no set date for when this ends, but in past contests, it's typically been about 3-4 weeks due to the large volume of entries.

Once judging concludes, a results thread is posted and prizes are distributed.

What you can do now

• ✅ Consider becoming a judge or donating a prize or two (see "Volunteers" section)
• ✅ Have a look around the Newgrounds Art Portal and pick what art you'd like to be inspired by. This is also a good time to reach out to the artist if you're planning to use their art, e.g. as cover art for your track, etc. (Please note that A rated art is not permitted to be used as inspiration for the compo.)
• ✅ You must be a scouted musician in order to participate. If you're new to Newgrounds and not a scouted musician, you can take this time to try and get scouted so you don't have to worry about it during the submissions period. You can find more info about scouting by visiting the Newgrounds FAQ and going to the "Audio Portal Questions" section.
• ✅ Ask questions about the compo in the comments below if you have any!

What you should NOT be doing now

• ❌ Don't start working on your entry until the submissions thread is posted. Yes, time zones are weird and it might even be a day later for you than what is announced, but the posting of the submissions thread will officially be the indicator of when you can start working on your entry. You can also join the NG Audio Pub Discord server, as I plan to also post a link to the submissions thread in the #aim-general channel. For the record, I'm in the PDT time zone and the plan is to have the submissions thread posted at 12:01 AM that time zone.

Volunteers

AIM relies on the assistance of a few people in the community. If you're interested, here's some of the ways you can help:

• Judges - I'm looking for 3-4 users to join me in judging the entries. Ideally, these will be users who have reviewed music on Newgrounds and are 18 years of age or older. (NOTE: Judges cannot submit entries.)
• Prizes - This is a fairly large compo and it would be great if we had a sizable amount of prizes for the winners. Something music-related would be nice, but stuff like Steam keys and a cash prize are also great.

If you're interested in helping out with any of the above, please either DM me or leave a comment below and I'll reach out to you via DM whenever I see it.

Roles Filled

• Promo Artist - @BingoWaders

FAQs

This year, I put together a document (or updated I guess, since I think I might have shared one last time) with a list of questions that have been frequently brought up in past AIMs. You can find this document here. Feel free to ask any other questions you have in the comments.

The 10th Anniversary

As stated at the beginning, AIM has officially hit its 10th anniversary and it is a very exciting time for one of the founders and the previous organizer of the Art-Inspired Music Contest, @ThatJohnnyGuy. This is what he had to say:

10 years ago, in 2013, I came up with the idea of an art-inspired music album, so I made a couple of songs inspired my artwork on Newgrounds from artists I really liked. I thought it was an interesting concept and I've not heard of it before, so I wanted to do something different. When I showed my friend @Phyrnna (previously HalcyonicFalconX), she said, "What if you made it into a tournament?" and that's where the idea of the competition was born.

I had very low expectations, but when I pitched the idea to @TomFulp and he put it in the calendar and promoted it as an official NG audio contest, I was floored. I never expected him to do that, but the first year was a really big turnout!!! The earlier contests of course had some rules to tweak and add, working out the kinks, but once I last lead the contest in 2016 (I think? 2017?) and I felt content with how it was, I knew I was able to pass it down to someone as I moved my focus to other things in my life I needed to prioritize.

@Random-storykeeper has been doing a great job with it, and it's great to see it still going 10 years later because of her! Another thing I wanted people to get out of this contest, was getting feedback from others to improve their craft, like a workshop that goes on for a few months to learn something, but also have fun with it. I never expected the contest to get as big as it has or go on this long, but it's very cool, and I'm honored that you all love it that much!

@Phyrnna couldn't participate in this, but she sends her best wishes to you all! This year I'm going to be picking my 3 favorite songs at the end of the contest, to take part in this special anniversary edition of the contest. Happy 10 years, thank you all for keeping the contest alive! Good luck!

Thank you, Johnny, for trusting me as the organizer for this compo. It was surprising as I wasn't really on Newgrounds that much. AIM has opened me up to a lot of amazing talent in the audio community and I'm glad to be a part of it.

And with that, get ready for the AIM 2023 submissions period starting Friday, April 21! See you when the submissions thread is posted!

The AIM 2022 compilation album is finally out on Bandcamp (link), which means my time with AIM is pretty much done for now.

This year's AIM was great, but I feel a bit more exhausted from it. I guess because I was trying to find the time to go through all the entries while I was dealing with other stressful moments in my life and it was becoming quite the challenge. One big takeaway I got from doing AIM these past few years is that the participants really want feedback in the form of a review. It's understandable - don't get me wrong - but I think I let it get to the point where I was trying to push myself to leave larger quantities of reviews with each passing AIM and it's become too much for me to handle.

That's not to say I hate leaving reviews or don't want to. I love providing details and context and analyzing an entry to provide some insight as to how I experienced their work. The issue, however, is that leaving an in-depth review is extremely time consuming and mentally taxing. It's listening to an entry multiple times and parts of it even more and trying to document all these thoughts into words. Multiply this by 91 entries and the task of reviewing all of them becomes impossible.

I'm grateful and appreciative that every year, I've had judges like @Troisnyx and @Quarl who did have that time and commitment to write out reviews for every entry and I really wish I had that time and drive to do the same. I don't expect any judge to leave reviews for every entry, especially given that I cannot do the same.

It's a significant part of the reason why a scoring system was introduced to this year's AIM, even though I was reluctant in past years. It at least gives some sense of how the judges experienced every entry, even if that cannot always be put into the form of in depth reviews. The scoring system is super new and there's opportunity for refinement - though it's something I'd need to look into.

Shoutouts

So yeah, AIM 2022 - great year, but I definitely need a break from it. But before I go, I wanted to mention a few non-winners that I really enjoyed:

Night Rain by @CattyxOwOriginals

The groove in this one is super catchy. I quite enjoyed the bassline.

Anamnesis by @JoMoMusic

I like how this one starts out like it's going to be a silly little jingle then gets into one of the smoothest comforting loops I've heard all compo. I like how the bell line gets referenced later on in the track - that was one detail I didn't even catch the first few listens.

Neo-Noir Nights by @LuckyDee

Holy crap, what a melody. I really love the development of that melodic line, especially when the accompaniment and basslines gradually enter and slightly adjust the way it is heard. That break at 1:56 where everything but that guitar drops out is golden.

3am Waltz by @Zechnition

This piece is effortlessly replayable even after the number of times I listened to it when reviewing. I'm still enchanted by the blips and embellishments that sparkle within. And that ending is <3

Rock 'n' Roll by @UncouthkidAC

I love that this captures the emotional angst of being young and done with everything. That sense of adolescence really connects the music to the art.

Shining Lights by @xZiriusX

I didn't really like this one on first listen, but when I was in my slog of finishing up listening to every entry and giving a rating, it started to resonate with me more and more. That loud business that turned me away from the track became this perfect representation of being in this crowded space where everything just gets to and overwhelms you and that connection made it become one of my favourites from this compo.

The submissions period has now ended. Check out the current submissions here or in these playlists: 1 and 2.

The Art-Inspired Music Contest is back and starting up soon! For those unfamiliar with the concept, composers pick one piece of art from the Newgrounds Art Portal and create a piece of music inspired by said art.

The submissions period begins on Friday April 15 this year, so you can start searching up artworks you'd want to use as inspiration, but no creating your entries until the submissions thread is posted.

In the meantime, I am still looking for:

• Contributors for the prizes.

If you're interested in contributing to any of the above, feel free to send me a message or leave a comment below and I'll get in touch with you as soon as I can.

Also, if you have any questions before the contest starts, you can also ask them here. I look forward to hearing these future entries!

AIM 2021 begins! Submission thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1468445

The Art-Inspired Music Contest is happening this year on Friday April 16, 2021. In this compo, you create a piece of music inspired by art from the Newgrounds Art Portal. More details and the rules will follow in the official submission thread (to be posted on the start of the compo), but they're probably going to be the same as the previous years' rules, so check out last year's submission thread here for an example of what to expect!

You can start searching for art, but you cannot start creating your entry before the submissions thread is posted on April 16, 2021. For now, there are a few matters that need to be addressed now:

Considerations

There's a couple of things I want to touch on for this year's compo - judging and voting for the fan favourite.

Fan Favourite

I do love the idea of having a fan favourite vote, but it doesn't seem like not a lot of people actually vote. Thankfully, we've managed to get a Fan Favourite winner by default when all other contenders were actual winners, but it would be nice to have a system that was a little more fan controlled. I remember touching on this last year, but I'm thinking of making it so that people can vote on more than one entry simultaneously. The question is whether it should be a ranked voting (eg. award 1, 2 or 3 points to three of the entries) or equally weighted votes (eg. you can vote for 3 but all votes are worth 1 point). I might lean more towards the ranking system as I think it might allow for a clearer winner. What are your thoughts?

Judging

Judging in previous years was usually pretty lax. Here's my previous post about how we judged the entries for 2020's compo. While the current system does allow for a quicker selection of winners, it doesn't really allow for all participants to easily get feedback for their entries. It's something I do think about a lot in regards to the competition. Feedback is great, but giving decent feedback can be extremely time consuming and if rushed, then it just becomes about the first impressions of an entry, which I don't know if that makes for a necessarily good merit of judgement. Either way, I've previously been super iffy about implementing a straight-up points rating system. Judges on AIM could use their own points system in the past, but it was never put in place across the entire panel. Maybe it would be good to have a standard on that front.

Judges

As per usual, AIM requires three other judges to evaluate all the entries. UPDATE: We now have a full judging panel, thanks! @Troisnyx has stepped forward to be a judge again this year, so we just need two more judges to fill the panel.

Promo Art

This year, Troisnyx has also offered to do the promo art, so thank you!

Prizes

So far, prizes have not been super clear this year, but generally more stuff gets offered during the submission period, so that may be the case once more. As per usual, winners get to be on the AIM compilation album, but aside from that, there's not a lot that has been confirmed yet. If you have some ideas for prizes or want to donate prizes for this contest, please let me know in the comments.

I hope to see you all participating, in one way or another. Remember, don't start your entry until the submission thread is posted!!!

The judging process for AIM 2020 proved to be challenging, and picking out 20 winners from the 88 entries was going to result in some great entries not making it into the final list. There are plenty of entries that I really love that didn’t make it onto the album at all, and I’m certain the other judges have entries that they really love that didn’t make it onto the album too. Nevertheless, decisions had to be made, and I wanted to make sure that the winners took into account the evaluations of every judge as best as I could do.

Taking Over

I took over organizing AIM from RealFaction, and one of the questions I asked before AIM 2019 (the first of these contests that I ran) started was how to judge the entries. Basically, in the past, each judge would list out their top 20 entries (which included their top 3 entries), then the organizer (who would also be the judge) would compile these lists and tally up the votes. Entries in which every judge picked, for instance, would be considered runner-ups at the very least. 

Last year, I was able to use this system to determine both the runner-ups and top 3 entries without much trouble. Most of the judges’ picks had overlap in terms of who they thought should be winners, so it was easy to extrapolate this data and determine the first, second and third place from it. I assigned 3 points to an entry ranked first in a judge’s list, 2 points for the second and 1 point for the third. Based on the rankings, the first place winner for AIM came out with 8 points (it appeared in all of the judges’ top 3 lists), the second place winner had 5 (appeared on two judges’ lists in 1st and 2nd place) and the third place winner had 2 points (appeared on two judges’ lists in 3rd place). While there were other entries that would have scored a higher amount of points, they only appeared in one judge’s list, so entries where at least two judges picked them would be prioritized. 

The judging process mostly takes place over Discord, and I use Excel / Google Sheets to compile the data. 

AIM 2020

This year, picking out 1st, 2nd and 3rd place appeared to be more difficult. I do think part of it has to do with the amazing turnout of entries this year - 88 entries compared to last year’s 43. When the judges put in their picks, there was almost no overlap. Some of us debated a bit over whether we needed a more refined points system for determining the top 3. Ultimately, after every judge’s top 3 lists were in, only one of the entries had overlap - the first place entry. This ended up being 1st in two of the judges’ list, while every other entry in the judges’ top 3 lists only appeared once. 

Seeing as second and third place would not be possible to extrapolate from this data alone, unlike last year, I decided to compare the top 3 against the picks for the top 20 runner-ups. There ended up being exactly 3 entries in the top 3 list in which 3 of the 4 judges had picked to be at least in the runner-ups (the rest had only appeared in 2 or 1 of the judges’ top 20 lists). Of the three entries that appeared in 3 of the judges’ runner-up lists, I proposed the following:

• 1st place would be the entry that appeared 1st place in two of the judges’ lists, as well as appearing in 3 of the judges’ top 20 lists.
• 2nd place would be the entry that appeared in 3 of the judges’ top 20 lists and was ranked 1st by one judge in the top 3. 
• 3rd place would be the entry that appeared in 3 of the judges’ top 20 lists and was ranked 2nd by one judge in the top 3. 

I proposed this lineup to the judges on Discord and asked if they were okay with it, if they wanted to make any changes, etc. They were fine with it overall, but requested that an explanation be made as to how we came to this process. 

From there, the rest of the top 20 was determined by comparing the judges’ top 20 lists. Out of the 88 entries, 50 of them appeared at least once in the judges’ picks. There was one entry that ended up in every judges’ list, but only as a runner-up. I asked if anyone felt if it should get a spot in the top 3, but the judges, overall, felt it was only suitable as a runner-up. I then included all the entries in which 3 of the judges had them in their top 20 lists, along with the entries in which 2 judges picked them and they had a placement somewhere in the top 3. We now had 11 of our winning entries set. There were 9 remaining spots to fill, and 11 entries left that had appeared in two of the judges’ top 20 lists. So I posted these 11 tentative entries and from there, we determined two entries to eliminate to narrow the list down to 20. 

In the end, I tried to keep the judging process similar to last year’s (and similar to how the previous organizer determined the winners) and use the judging data to objectively (or as close to objectively as possible) figure out the top 3 and 17 runner-ups. Only about 23% of the entries could actually make it as the judge’s winners, compared to the near 50% of the last contest. An entry that did not win was not necessarily “bad” by any means. As with any music compo, judging comes with a considerable amount of bias and it’s okay to not agree with the decisions made. Just know that the winners were not determined solely by any single person by their own particular list. 

I'm happy to announce the official start of AIM 2020. I encourage all of you to join. Yes, you.

The submissions thread, with all the details you need, can be found here!