Who can enter and what gets rejected: SongBattle's eligibility and disqualification rules explained

An entry to SongBattle can die three ways. The form can bounce it before it saves — a wrong link, a missing answer — and that one costs you a minute. A reviewer can reject it, which stings but comes with a refund. Or the entry can go live, collect votes, and get disqualified, which is the only one of the three that's permanent and the only one you have to earn.

Most artists worry about the third and trip on the first. This piece puts the rulebook behind all three in one place: who's allowed in, what the form refuses on the spot, what a human reviewer is checking, the difference between a rejection and a disqualification, and what you can actually do if you think a decision was wrong.

One honest frame first: this is a summary written to be readable. The Official Contest Rules and the Terms of Service are the documents that control, and where this piece and those documents disagree, they win.

Who can enter

The eligibility section of the rules is short, and every line in it matters at the winner-verification stage, so read it as a list of things you'll have to prove later rather than boxes you tick now.

• Independent and unsigned artists. The rules, the FAQ and the About page all use the same phrase. If you're under a recording contract, you're not who the competition is for.
• Legal residents of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. This is a US competition.
• Not Florida, New York or Rhode Island — for now. The rules exclude residents of those three states "due to state promotion laws," and say they may be added once any required registration or bonding is completed. That's a compliance line, not a judgment about those scenes. Check the rules page for the current list before you enter.
• 18 or older, or a parent or legal guardian enters on your behalf and agrees to the rules. (Separately, the Terms require anyone using the site at all to be at least 13.)
• One artist identity per person. Running multiple identities to enter or vote more than allowed is listed as grounds for disqualification.
• Not connected to the Sponsor. Employees, contractors, officers and their immediate family or household members aren't eligible to win.
• Not last competition's winner. The rules page says the previous competition's winner may not win two in a row — "keeping the spotlight moving to new talent." You can enter; you can't take the prize twice running.

Note what the form does not ask: your state, your age, or your contract status. Eligibility is verified at the winner stage, when a potential winner confirms identity and eligibility and may sign an affidavit. An ineligible entrant who tops the leaderboard is caught then, and the prize can pass to the next eligible entrant in vote order. Entering from an excluded state is a way to run a whole campaign for nothing.

"Independent and unsigned," and hip-hop only for now

The genre rule is enforced before you type anything. The Genre field on the entry form is fixed to "Hip-Hop / Rap" with a note that more genres are coming soon, and the server sets the genre to Hip-Hop on every entry regardless of what a browser sends. The rules page says the same thing in words: open to independent and unsigned hip-hop and rap artists, with more genres to be added as the platform grows.

Neither the rules nor the form define "independent" beyond the plain meaning, and neither tries to adjudicate the edges of hip-hop. What they do is give the reviewer authority to reject any entry that doesn't comply with the rules — and the genre line is on the rules page. A person listens before anything goes live.

The form checks that bounce you instantly

The entry form and the server run these checks the moment you press Submit. Nothing is saved when they fail, and each comes with a specific error message.

• Every required field filled. Artist or band name, email, song title, video link and bio are required. Miss one and you get "Please fill in all required fields."
• A real email address. It's the address the team uses to contact you and the key for the one-entry rule, so use one you check.
• A YouTube link, specifically. The video must be a youtube.com or youtu.be address. Anything else returns "The video link must be a YouTube URL." The profile page and the watch gate are built on YouTube's player, so there's no exception.
• A bio of 500 characters or fewer. The text box stops you at 500; the server rejects anything longer in case a browser doesn't.
• A photo that's a JPG, PNG or WebP under 5 MB — if you add one. The photo is optional. Oversized or wrong-format files are refused before upload.
• A Spotify link from open.spotify.com — if you add one. Your artist page, an album or a track all work. A smart link or a landing page doesn't.
• An answer to the AI question. It's a required pair of radio buttons, and the server refuses anything that isn't a yes or a no. The full rule is in the AI-assisted badge explained.
• The rights checkbox. You can't submit without confirming you own or control the rights to the music, that your AI answer is truthful, and that you agree to the rules and terms. That sentence is the representation review relies on.
• One entry per email per competition. The form header states the limit ("One entry per artist this competition," or a higher number if the team has raised it). A second submission from the same email gets "You've already entered this competition with this email — only one entry per artist is allowed."

Two other things to know. If the team has switched submissions off, the Enter page shows a "Submissions Are Closed" notice instead of the form. And if you entered before on the same device, the form auto-fills your name, email, bio and socials from that browser's memory — you add the new song and video.

What human review actually looks for

Once the form accepts your entry, it saves with a status of pending and waits. A person reviews it against Section 5 of the rules before it goes live — usually within a couple of days, per the FAQ. Don't wait on an email: your private stats page shows the status, and when it flips to approved the banner disappears and your profile appears on the site.

Section 5 is a set of representations you make by entering. The reviewer is checking that nothing visible contradicts them:

• You own or control the rights to the music, video, lyrics, beats, samples, performances and footage, or have the licenses and permissions to submit it and have it published.
• The entry doesn't infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, publicity, privacy or other rights.
• It's your own original work, genuinely performed by you, and you answered the AI question truthfully.
• No unlawful, defamatory, hateful, harassing or sexually explicit content, and nothing involving minors.

The Terms of Service go further than the rules on paperwork, and this is where a careful artist should look hardest. Under Section 2 of the Terms, a beat you licensed has to come with a license that expressly permits commercial use, public performance and online distribution — including reposts on the site's social channels. A lease that's exclusive to another artist, expired, or limited to non-commercial use doesn't qualify. Samples and interpolations need written clearance or a documented exception. Every featured performer, producer and rights holder needs to have given written permission, and everyone who appears in the video has to have consented. The rapper's guide to buying beats explains what each lease tier actually allows, and copyright, PROs and split sheets covers the signatures you should already have.

What review is not: a lie detector. The rules say the Sponsor doesn't independently verify AI use and relies on your disclosure in good faith, and the same logic applies to rights. A reviewer can spot an obviously uncleared sample. They can't see a license you don't have. That's why the representation is binding and why the consequences of a false one land later.

Rejected vs. removed vs. disqualified

Three words that get used interchangeably and shouldn't be.

Rejected means your entry didn't pass review. The status on your stats page reads rejected, your profile never goes live, and under Section 4 of the Terms an entry rejected for non-compliance gets its fee refunded in full. It's the least bad outcome: fix what was wrong and enter the next competition.

Removed means an approved, live entry was taken down. Section 10 of the Terms reserves the Sponsor's right to refuse, hide or take down any entry at any time — for suspected rule violations, intellectual-property complaints, anti-fraud reasons, DMCA notices, quality concerns, or anything the Sponsor judges to be in the interest of the competition — and says plainly that approval doesn't waive that right. Fees are non-refundable once an entry has been approved and posted, and an entry removed for cause (rule violation, infringement, fraud or chargeback abuse) isn't eligible for a refund.

Disqualified means you're out of the competition for breaking the rules. You forfeit any prize, and if a prize was already paid, the rules require you to return it in full. The rules page calls vote manipulation "immediate disqualification without refund." This is the one that follows you.

The disqualification list

Section 10 of the rules lists what gets an entrant disqualified, "in the Sponsor's sole judgment":

• Tampering with the entry or voting process.
• Using bots, scripts or purchased votes.
• Submitting infringing or ineligible content.
• Providing false information — which includes a false answer to the AI question.
• Harassing other participants or the Sponsor.
• Otherwise violating the rules.
• Initiating a chargeback or payment dispute without first contacting the Sponsor.

On votes specifically, Section 7 says votes the Sponsor determines to be fraudulent, automated, purchased, incentivized in exchange for value, or routed through disposable or proxy connections to evade per-device limits are removed and don't count, and the Terms add "coordinated multi-device voting" to the list. The artist who benefits is the one disqualified — if a well-meaning cousin buys you a vote package, the rules don't care whose card it was on. If you're running a push, read how SongBattle's anti-fraud voting works and make sure nobody on your team is "helping."

How flagged votes are handled:

• The automatic flag. Once six or more different devices have voted from the same connection in a round, further ballots from that connection are recorded but held for review rather than counted. A handful of devices on one Wi-Fi is normal and passes; a flood doesn't.
• A person decides. Held ballots don't count unless the team reviews them and decides they're legitimate.
• Removal has no deadline. Section 7 says checks can be applied and votes removed before, during or after the contest, including after a preliminary winner has been announced. The official winner is the artist with the highest verified total after all removals.

"Final and binding," honestly

Section 7 of the rules ends with a paragraph that every entrant should read twice: all decisions of the Sponsor regarding eligibility, entry acceptance, vote validity, disqualification, tie-breaking and selection of winners are "final and binding on all entrants and voters, and are not subject to challenge or appeal except as expressly provided in these Rules or as required by law."

There is no appeals form on the site, no review board, and no second-opinion process. Nobody is hiding one; a competition this size runs on a small team making calls, and the rules say so. You can write to the team with specifics — which entry, which decision, what you think was missed — and the About page says they read everything. You can't demand a hearing the rules don't provide.

If you still disagree

Two different doors, for two different problems.

You think someone else is cheating. Email info@songbattle.co with your profile address and the artist you're concerned about. The anti-fraud guide says every credible tip gets investigated, and the removal mechanics above mean a tip can matter even after the clock has run out.

You have a formal dispute with SongBattle. Section 14 of the Terms sets the process, and it starts with a letter, not a lawyer. Send a written notice to legal@songbattle.co describing the dispute and what you're asking for. Both sides then have at least 60 days to try to resolve it informally. If that fails, the Terms require individual arbitration under the American Arbitration Association's consumer rules, held in Prince George's County, Maryland, or by phone or video where the AAA permits, with a class-action waiver. Two exceptions: individual claims that qualify for small-claims court can go there instead, and claims seeking only an injunction over intellectual property aren't covered. There's also a 30-day opt-out — email legal@songbattle.co within 30 days of first accepting the Terms with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" and your name and email.

None of that is legal advice. It's a map of what the documents say, so you know where the doors are before you need them.

Read the rules, then enter clean

Ten minutes before you submit, run this list:

1. Residency and age. Fifty states or DC, not one of the three excluded states, 18 or a guardian entering for you.
2. Contract status. Independent and unsigned, and not last competition's winner.
3. The beat license. Written, current, not exclusive to someone else, and it allows commercial use, public performance and online distribution.
4. Samples and features. Cleared in writing, with written permission from every featured performer and producer.
5. The video. On YouTube, public, and every person in it consented to appear.
6. The AI question. Answer it honestly; a yes keeps you eligible, a false no doesn't.
7. One email, one entry. Use the address you check, and don't try the form twice.
8. Content. Nothing unlawful, hateful, harassing or sexually explicit, and nothing involving minors.
9. Your bio. Accurate, under 500 characters, and written for the fan landing on your page cold.
10. Payment. If a fee is in effect, it's collected and confirmed before approval — your entry doesn't go live until it is.

An entry that clears all ten is an approved entry: the only kind that appears on the site, counts toward the prize pool, and can receive a verified vote. That's what the whole process exists to produce, and the process is explained stage by stage in what happens after you hit submit. Clear the list, then enter the competition.

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Related:

• What makes a fair fan-voted music competition?
• Where the prize money comes from: How the SongBattle prize pool is funded, calculated and paid out