Effective for March’s contest and any month going forward, we will award first, second and third place prizes provided we have a minimum of ten entries. For first place the YouPerform contest winner will receive a gift certificate in the amount of $100, second place will receive a $50 certificate, and third place will receive a certificate for $25.

We will be contacting the winners of March’s contest today and we hope to provide you with a feature on these lucky winners soon. Thank you so much for helping us get our contest off the ground. We are really excited to see what April’s contest will hold! The more entries we receive, the more enhancements we’ll make to ensure that the contest is fun for everyone!

For more about our YouPerform contest, visit our Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest page. Are you interested in entering your performance? Visit our April Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest on YouTube! to enter your video for this month!

Composed in 1920 by Bill Munro, the lyrics for “When My Baby Smiles at Me” were written by Ted Lewis and Andrew B. Sterling. Ted Lewis was the original performer of the song. Ted Lewis enjoyed a career in music, spanning over fifty years. “When My Baby Smiles at Me” marked the beginning of the roaring twenties and the start of Lewis’ world-wide popularity. Lewis used to enjoy world-wide recognition for his music up until the mid-1930s, even though he went on to enjoy a long career in music.

Both the guitar tab and the piano sheet music includes the lyrics to “When My Baby Smiles At Me.” We hope you enjoy February’s free sheet music download of the month, and hope you are inspired to sing or play this fun, uplifting tune for your sweetheart.

The free song should be available no later than Monday. For now, you can still download “Hail to the Chief.”

35% Off Guitar Tab for Death Cab for Cutie’s Latest Album!

Have you listened to Death Cab for Cutie’s album Narrow Stairs? This best-selling album is the latest from Death Cab for Cutie, who is currently on tour. According to the Death Cab for Cutie 2009 Tour page, they’re making their way to the U.S. later this year.

Hone your musical skills and strum along to songs like “I Will Possess your Heart” and “Your New Twin-Sized Bed” with an exclusive 35% off coupon. Take 35% off Death Cab for Cutie guitar tab for songs from the album “Narrow Stairs” through Midnight CST on Saturday, February 7, 2009.

Click here for guitar tab on sale. Death Cab for Cutie’s album “Narrow Stairs.”

Know How to Play Fur Elise? Submit your Entry for February’s YouPerform Contest!

We’ve been really happy with how our Musicnotes YouPerform contest has been going these past, few months. We know it’s pretty tough to try to learn a new song and record it, but we’re still hoping that you’ll give it a shot. As you know, we opened up the contest to include classical pieces from our Musicnotes Editions collection. There are a ton of familiar and classical songs to choose from including: Clair de Lune, Canon in D, Fur Elise, Amazing Grace, Nocturne No. 3 by Liszt and a whole lot more. Remember, your arrangements are eligible of these songs, too. So get out there and play your flute or sing a tune, because we’ll declare another winner of a $100 gift certificate to our site next month.

Just to let you know, if we don’t get another entry into the Musicnotes YouPerform Contest for January, then we will be able to announce a winner early next week. We’re hoping we’ll get at least one more entry, so we can offer you another music-filled battle! So what are you waiting for? Find your song among over 1,000 Musicnotes Editions today!

We based our YouPerform Contest around these Musicnotes Editions for a few reasons. First, we wanted to ensure that no one had to worry about copyright restrictions. Copyright, as it relates to music and sheet music, can be extremely confusing. For example, ABC News recently covered a story about how “YouTube, Warner ’stand to benefit’ from copyright agreement.” For another example, you can read the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) website to learn about how copyright affects file sharing and even listening to music. The good news is that all of our Musicnotes Editions are compliant with copyright law.

Secondly, since all of our free sheet music downloads are also Musicnotes Editions, we thought that our free song of the month would be a great place to start.

New Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest Rules

Over the past few months, we’ve received quite a few comments and suggestions about how we can improve this contest for you. We’re happy to announce new rules for January that we hope will encourage you to get out there and start practicing:

• More Songs to Choose From: You may now submit a video entry for any song, as long as it is a Musicnotes Edition. We will reach 1,000 different Musicnotes Editions in January. View all Musicnotes Editions on Musicnotes.com. Take a look at this list and watch or search for your song through our site. Be sure to watch for that little, green “note” icon.
• Free Sheet Music Download Still Qualifies: You can still perform the free sheet music download of the month for the contest. This month’s free download is the song, “Hail to the Chief.”
• Remember, Your Arrangements are Eligible: Remember, you can tweak the Musicnotes Edition arrangement to fit your playing style or instrument. One of our December contest entrants did just that.

Additionally, one of you had recommended we create two separate categories of contestants, guitarists and pianists. We will keep this in mind, and may open up new contest categories depending on how many entries we receive and how they are performed (guitar/voice/piano/flute, etc.).

Thank you to everyone who participated in our YouPerform contests for 2008! We are excited about 2009!!!

December Video Contest Entries are In!

We have received two Musicnotes YouPerform contest entries for December, performing the Nutcracker Medley our staff had put together in time for this magical season. Watch for public voting to appear sometime next week!

In the meantime, stay “InTune” and we hope you are enjoying these first, few days of 2009!!!

Do you want to win a $100 gift certificate to Musicnotes.com? You have until Friday at midnight to enter the contest by uploading your video to YouTube.

Good luck!

If you have a moment, could you let us know whether or not you’re still interested in submitting your entry to our contest?

Thank you Musicnotes fans and customers, for sticking with us as we try new things. If you have feedback you’d like to share on our contest, we’d really appreciate it.

Digital Sheet Music — The average price of our digital sheet music downloads is $4.95. If you spent your entire gift certificate on digital sheet music, you would be able to get approximately 20 songs for free. With almost 90,000 songs to browse through, which 20 would you choose?

Guitar Guru Sessions — These hands-on, interactive guitar lessons are perfect for any guitarist, no matter what level of musical proficiency you might have. We have over 1,300 Guitar Guru Sessions to choose from, and our average price per song is $6.95. A $100 gift certificate equates to 14 Guitar Guru Sessions, or both Guitar Guru Sessions Giftpacks for your PC with credit to spare!

Sheet Music Books — From the world class Henle sheet music books to contemporary sheet music favorites from Disney, we offer over 200,000 music books that greatly range in price. For example, the High School Musical Easy Piano Songbook retails for $14.95, the Video Games Live Part 2 Music Book with scoring for bands is $85.00 and the Master for the Young Complete Cello Works By Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, Mozart for $9.95. You could easily spend the entire gift certificate on anywhere between one to ten sheet music books.

Digital Sheet Music Club — You might want to consider applying your gift toward our Musicnotes Digital Discount Club. For $14.95 you’ll receive 10% off your purchases for a year and get a sheet music folio (a $7.95 value) that will allow you to organize and protect your sheet music downloads. When you purchase your membership to the Club, your 10% discount will immediately be applied for your entire order. For example, if you purchased the Club Membership at $14.95 and added twelve sheet music downloads (a value of $85.00) then you would receive 10% off of the sheet music you purchased. That’s a savings of $8.50!

Please note that our calculation did not include shipping charges for physical sheet music books or other products that would require shipping. We didn’t estimate shipping because those fees will vary depending upon where you live. Remember, though, that for the digital sheet music downloads or the Guitar Guru Sessions, you do not have to pay any shipping because they go straight from our site to your desktop or laptop.

Hope you’re busy practicing In the Hall of the Mountain King for this month’s contest. Remember, if you have any questions please feel free to post them in the comments and we’ll make sure we cover your question in a future post.

How to Upload a Video to YouTube!

STEP ONE: Create a YouTube! Account – You will not be able to upload your videos without one.

STEP TWO: Click on “Upload your video” (Step One of Two) – Step One allows you to name and describe your video. For the contest, you’ll want to ensure that the title of the song is in your video; we’ll leave the description and the tags to you. Please ensure that no other settings are changed. The default settings allow others to rate your performance for the contest, and they also allow us to promote your musical performance through our site and this blog.

Here is a screenshot of what the first step looks like. Remember, you can tag and describe this performance how you want to, but the song title allows us to easily reference and approve your video for the contest.

After you’ve completed STEP ONE, click on the Upload your Video button.

STEP THREE: Upload your Video from Your Computer (Step Two of Two) – Step Two is the step where you physically upload your video from your computer to your account.

After your video has been uploaded, you’ll see a message that looks like this:

How to Add your YouTube! Video to Musicnotes.com’s Contest Group

STEP ONE: Log in – Ensure that you are logged into your YouTube! account.

STEP TWO: Click on Contest Group – Click on MUSICNOTES.COM OCTOBER YOUPERFORM CONTEST. You can also find this group by visiting the Musicnotes.com YouTube! Channel and clicking on the “Groups” link at the top of the navigation.

STEP THREE: Select “Add your Video” – Click on “Add Video.” This will be a blue text link on the right hand side of the screen next to the contest description.

STEP FOUR: Add your Video – Scroll through your YouTube! videos to find your contest entry from My Videos. Click on the box (see below) and then click on the “add video” option to add the video to our contest group. YouTube! does not provide a confirmation screen when you add your video to the group. We will provide the confirmation for you (see the next step).

STEP FIVE: Email Us – Per the Musicnotes.com YouPerform contest rules, please email us a link to your video (from your account) with your contact information to musiclovers AT musicnotes DOT com. We will confirm that your video has been received in our group. We mentioned in the rules that we would comment on your video when it’s approved on November 1st, but we may revisit that if you would like faster communication. Please let us know.