Open call: Pepsi Music Academy in Nigeria

The initiative, running in partnership with American distribution service and record label EMPIRE, aims to discover, train and showcase local talent. 

The competition will reward the top three participants with brand new SUVs each, and an opportunity to work on their music with leading producers like Sarz, Masterkraft, Blaisebeatz and P.priime. They will also earn a two-year recording contract with EMPIRE.

The deadline for submissions is 18 January.

Eligibility 

Open only to individual entrants who meet the following criteria:

• Must be a Nigerian by nationality.
• Must be 18 years of age (as of last birthday) or older and a resident in any state in Nigeria.
• For the purposes of the academy, the song submitted must have both lyrics and music. All submitted songs must be original songs that have been written by the entrant.
• Entrants must be amateur in the music publishing/recording industry (which is defined for purposes of this academy as individuals who do not have a current binding recording or publishing contract).
• Must be acting alone in creating/performing the entry.
• Must not have any affiliation with any other beverage company before or during the academy period.
• One entry per person/per email.
• This academy is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws, and is void where prohibited by law.

How to enter

During the entry period, entrants may visit the competition website and complete the following steps:

• Complete the online entry form with the required information. The information must remain valid throughout the academy period. Else, the entrant gets disqualified. The social media account entered must be set to ‘public account’ throughout the academy period.
• Submit the link to your original song (.MP3 file, hosted on SoundCloud) that is at least 2 minutes 50 seconds long (2:50). It must be Afrobeats and consist of at least two verses and one chorus to qualify.

Note: The entrant must be the original and sole composer of the song, owning all rights to the song.

Entry requirements

Entries must meet the following criteria, as determined solely by the sponsor, or they may be disqualified at the sponsor’s sole discretion:

• Can be in English or Pidgin or any Nigerian language.
• May not contain obscene, lewd, defamatory, inappropriate, disparaging, offensive, tribalistic or threatening content.
• May not be disparaging to the sponsor or any of the promotion parties.
• Must be in keeping with the sponsor’s desired image.
• Must not defame or invade the publicity rights or privacy rights of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any person’s personal or proprietary rights.
• Must not copy or otherwise plagiarism or infringe on another source or use third-party materials (other than that it may use third-party beats, as permitted herein).
• Must be the sole original work of the entrant submitting the entry (other than the use of beats).
• Must include an original Afrobeats song performance.
• Must not use any third-party names, trademarks, logos or brand identifiers.
• Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may disqualify an entry that fails to conform with the entry requirements.

Judging 

There are two phases of judging in this contest, as follows:

Phase 1 judging: Faculty members will review entries for eligibility and only 20 entries that meet the requirements of the official rules, as determined by faculty members, will pass on to Phase 2 judging.

Phase 2 judging: A live draw will take place at the end of the two-day intensive training for the 20 successful entrants who passed Phase 1 judging. The top three finalists will emerge as winners and will work with a music producer selected by the sponsor.

Selected participants who qualify will be notified by email.

View the original call here.