At least with the FAWM.org songwriting challenge, when I contributed to one of the 14 songs selected (out of thousands written during that year's challenge), I got a copy of the nice Digipak-type CD for free!

These contests are generally a con. Save your money and join Taxi instead. If you have quality songwriting chops, there's at least a remote chance of them doing something with it. It's not cheap.

-Scott