My guess is along the lines as what has been stated already. The songs are likely prescreened, then prescreened again and maybe a 3rd time until they get it down to a handful in each category and then they get assigned to a judge. I can't imagine Neon Trees and Cyndi Lauper are going to be judging much country and Brandi Carlile giving the thumbs up to thrash. And this is where "hook" comes in. MAYBE in the early rounds will your whole song get heard, but by the time you get to that last cut, you better grab them fast.


From the contest FAQ:

DO THE JUDGES LISTEN TO ALL THE ENTRIES, OR IS THERE A SCREENING PROCESS?

There is a screening committee that listens to all entries and selects the group of finalists which are then sent to the judges. The judges then select the winners from this group of finalists. The screening process is carefully and respectfully implemented with the goal of selecting the best songs to send on to the judges.



What gets me is when you go listen to the songs that DIDN'T win they are often better than what DID. Visit the ISC page from last year and listen to the country category. The 2nd place song was SO MUCH BETTER than what won.... and I found that to be true is several categories.

At $30 a song, someone is cleaning up. Are there really a lot of expenses in bringing in judges to sit and listen to songs? Raw material costs? Labor?