NNMC Rules

NNMC rules have changed both gradually and drastically over time. Presented below are the current rules.

## Contest & Forum Etiquette

1. In NNMC, we expect every user to follow through in their participation. We know situations may arise, so please be responsible participants and inform us of your situation if you need to be excused.
2. An edition of NNMC usually lasts one month, with a maximum of ten editions per year. We use two months each year as breaks.
3. Most discussions and interactions related to NNMC are held in the “NowNewMusic Contest” board in The Song Contest Forums (SCF). We also have a Discord chat under the SCF server; ask any of the moderators for an invite link.
	* The board’s moderators make up the NowNewMusic Contest Council (NNMC Council); they are SCF users MaRtIn, Tufkai, Gregory, and Radek.
4. NNMC upholds a casual and civil atmosphere. Any disruption to this atmosphere may result in a warning. The severity of the disruption is up to the interpretation of all NNMC Council members; penalties may be given if we see fit.
5. Any perceived loopholing of the rules will be reviewed by the NNMC Council and may result in a strike.

## NNMC Council

1. Since January 2018, the NNMC Council oversees the organization of the contest. The NNMC Council ensures the contest runs smoothly. As board moderators, each council member performs unique actions not accessible to regular users.
	* Responsibilities are transferrable between council members if needed.
2. MaRtIn is the founder and owner of NNMC. He is responsible for:
	* making most official posts.
	* opening and closing confirmation and voting periods.
	* making confirmation/submission reminders.
	* overseeing voting.
	* creating videos of recaps and results.
	* posting the Semifinals and Grand Final recaps and results.
3. Tufkai updates the rankings of every country and user that have ever participated in NNMC. Other actions include:
	* organizing draws to claim countries the NNMC Council consider as popular (United Kingdom, United States, Canada, etc.).
	* organizing the annual Second Chance Contest.
4. Gregory is responsible for collecting votes and sending voting reminders. He also creates voting grids that detail every single vote.
5. 𝖱adek is also responsible for collecting votes. He also makes the voting grids and is responsible for making the running order for both the Semifinals and Grand Final.
	* If he has time, he may be able to create support banners and official Spotify playlists for each edition.

## Participating Users

1. To take part in NNMC, you must be a registered user in SCF.
2. If anyone in SCF discovers that someone is using multiple user accounts (same IP), the individual will be banned from participating permanently.
3. If you are a registered user who is *temporarily* banned from SCF, you can still participate. However, you must be able to communicate with at least one NNMC Council member outside the forum (Discord, FB Messenger, etc.).
4. Users permanently banned from SCF are permanently banned from participating in NNMC. If an active SCF account is discovered to be linked to a banned account, that account will also be banned permanently.
5. Current users are allowed to announce a break by posting in the current edition’s thread. Only one-edition breaks are allowed. Longer breaks require the user to give up their current country. Bans do not count as breaks.

## Confirmations & Submissions

1. The confirmation and submission period for NNMC usually begins on the first day of the month and ends after seven days. Sometimes, it may open on a later day. All schedules are on **US Mountain Time (MST/MDT)**, where MaRtIn lives, and **Central European Time (CET/CEST)**, where most SCF users are from. Confirmations officially open when MaRtIn opens a new thread for a new edition.
2. Certain users are allowed to confirm on the first day. They must be:
	* users ranked in the Top 25 User Ranking.
	* users who participated in the previous edition's Grand Final.
	* users who were in last edition's Standby List who submitted a valid entry but were not able to participate due to no space.
	* non-participants who submitted replacement votes in the previous edition's Semifinals or Grand Final.
3. Everyone else must wait until MaRtIn makes the post opening confirmations to them.
4. You must post your confirmation in the current edition’s thread. You can confirm as yourself and take a country later. Users who participated in the previous edition or took a one-edition break keep their current country unless specified otherwise.
5. Users who took a one-edition break in the previous edition are required to confirm in the current edition. If the user is a Top 25 user and/or submitted replacement votes, they can confirm on Day 1. Otherwise, they must wait until MaRtIn makes the Day 2 post. Failure to confirm after the deadline upon returning from break results in the user automatically losing their country.
6. **[UPDATE]** If any of the first 60 users fails to post a valid entry by the deadline, they will receive a strike, be removed from participation, and lose their country. *No exceptions.* A user in the Standby List may take their place, provided they already posted their valid entry. Priority in the Standby List always goes to the earliest to confirm, then to whoever posted a valid entry.
7. National selections can be organized before and during the submission period. Users are required to create a thread in the “NNMC National Selections” sub-board. The selection method is up to the user.
	* While an edition is ongoing, a user with a country (whether during a one-edition break or as a current participant) is allowed to organize their national selection in advance of the next edition unless the contest is taking a break. However, organizing a national selection in advance does not guarantee the user a secure spot in the next edition. They must still confirm when the confirmation period opens.
	* If a user who organized a national selection fails to post their entry in the current edition’s thread by the deadline, the official entry is the winner of the national selection. *No exceptions.* In the case of a tie for first place, MaRtIn will wait a reasonable time (usually a day) for the organizer themselves to break the tie and decide the entry. If a response does not come soon enough, the user will be removed from the edition and replaced by a user in the Standby List if possible.
8. The submission period officially ends when MaRtIn makes the official post.

## Participating Countries

1. Countries are first come, first serve.
2. Current United Nations member states plus Kosovo, Palestine, Taiwan, and Vatican City are eligible to participate in NNMC.
3. Dependent territories are also eligible to participate with limitations (see Article VI, Section 7). Eligible dependent territories are listed in the “Overview of inhabited dependent territories” section of the “Dependent territory” Wikipedia page.
4. Participating countries will be called by their common name.
5. All participating sovereign states and dependent territories will be labelled as countries in NNMC.
6. The NNMC Council is not allowed to reserve countries for any user. However, users are allowed to negotiate among themselves on what countries they want to claim as long as someone in the NNMC Council is aware of the arrangement.
7. Some countries with populations under 100,000 are allowed to borrow if they are near a significantly larger neighbor. They are only allowed to borrow from one of their neighboring countries.
	* Andorra can borrow from Spain.
	* Liechtenstein can borrow from Switzerland.
	* Monaco can borrow from France.
	* San Marino can borrow from Italy.
8. Users of countries that are allowed to borrow songs are not required to seek approval from users of the country they are borrowing from, but it is recommended for transparency.

## Participating Acts

1. An artist, whether individual or a group, is considered as one unit. A NNMC act can be made up of one artist or a collaboration between two or more artists.
2. **[NEW]** An act must be explicitly credited on YouTube (in the video title and/or channel name) or Spotify for their song to be considered as an entry.
3. **[UPDATE]** Participating acts must be currently alive during the confirmation period. If a solo act or group member dies while the edition is in progress, their song can remain in the edition.
4. Participating artists can only represent one country per edition.
5. The same artist can participate for up to three consecutive editions regardless of the country they represent.
6. For a solo artist to represent a country, they must have a relevant connection to it. Valid connections include:
	* They were born there.
	* At least ONE biological parent is from there; can also be a migrant from there.
	* They currently live there and/or have lived or worked a significant amount of time there.
	* Other connection the NNMC Council deems satisfactory to represent a specific country.
7. A solo artist can represent a dependent territory under stricter conditions:
	* They were born there.
	* BOTH parents either live or are migrants from there.
	* They currently live there.
	* Other connection that the NNMC Council deems satisfactory to represent the dependent territory.
8. For a group to represent a country, at least **ONE-THIRD** of its members must satisfy the rules mentioned in #6 and #7 above. Only the current makeup of members will be considered for eligibility.
	* If a group has more than three members *and* are from more than three countries, eligibility to represent a country in NNMC will be based on the background of the lead performer(s), which may vary by song.
9. An act consisting of at least two artists can represent a country if at least one-third of the artists involved can satisfy the artist rules.
10. The country of origin of the artist’s management is irrelevant to the eligibility of an act for a certain country.
11. If the entry is a remix, the remixer’s country of origin is irrelevant. Eligibility to represent a country is strictly based on the original artist if officially credited in their discography (mainly Spotify, YouTube, and/or Apple Music).

## Participating Entries

1. Only original studio tracks are allowed to participate in NNMC. Official remixes and tracks that use samples are also allowed.
	* Eligible remixes are credited in the original artist's discography, for example appearing in an artist's profile in a streaming platform.
2. Songs confirmed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), American Song Contest (ASC), and any other in-person song contest are not allowed.
	* This rule extends to songs that were later disqualified from participating.
3. Covers are forbidden in NNMC. If a submitted song is discovered within the confirmation period to be a cover, time will be given to the respective user to change the song. If the entry is not changed until one day after the deadline, the user will be removed from the edition.
	* Covers include songs in which the language is changed from the original and are still lyrically/sonically the same.
4. Eligible entries for an edition of NNMC must be published up to two months before the first day of the current month. For example, in an October edition of NNMC, only songs published in August and September of the same year are allowed.
5. The publication rules of NNMC are flexible. If the official music video of an entry was officially published on YouTube less than two months prior to the start of the edition, the entry is eligible regardless of the original release date. If there are duplicate official uploads of the same video, only the earliest upload will count.
6. If an entry is not available on YouTube but was published in another site within the valid timeframe, it is the user’s responsibility to upload the full audio onto YouTube (Public or Unlisted). A snippet of the entry is also allowed but not preferred; it must be at least 26 seconds long to fit the contest's recap time slot (+transitions). Videos uploaded to Vimeo, Dailymotion, or other video/audio sharing sites will not be accepted.

## Voting

1. The length of voting periods in most events varies, but usually lasts within 6-8 days.
2. All voters must fill out the Google Form provided in the same forum post as the recap. You are expected to follow all instructions properly and with common sense.
3. A valid set of votes is a singular ranking of a user’s top ten entries in a semifinal or Grand Final. The distribution of points goes from 12, 10, 8, 7 down to 1 points. Your top-ranked song will get the 12 points and then goes in descending order of preference.
4. Do not publish your individual votes until the edition's Grand Final Results have been published. This action will result in a strike whether accidental or not. This also applies to replacement voters.
5. During the Semifinals, all participants are required to vote in their designated semifinal. Optionally, (non-)participants can also vote in the semifinals they are not assigned to as possible replacement or “Rest of the World” voters.
6. Voting in the Grand Final is mandatory to all participants. Non-participants can also vote as possible replacement voters. If we receive at least three unused non-participant votes, a “Rest of the World” vote will be used for the Grand Final.
7. Participants who will not be able to vote in either the Semifinals or Grand Final must notify a NNMC Council member as soon as possible before the voting period closes. These participants will not receive a strike. If a user excuses themselves from voting in both the Semifinals and Grand Final, a strike will be given. Participants must vote in at least either one to avoid a strike, but if this trend continues for three consecutive editions, a strike will be given then.
8. Gregory will regularly post several voting reminders throughout the voting period. The frequency of reminders is his decision.
9. Voting officially closes when MaRtIn sets the Google Form to not accept any more responses, which usually happens some time after the hour of the designated deadline.
10. Failure to vote by the deadline without notice will result in a strike for the user only. Replacement votes will be used to fill in the missing sets, However, if the amount of replacement votes is not enough to compensate, countries will be disqualified. Any non-participant replacement votes will be used first followed by participants' replacement votes. How replacement votes are given is in the NNMC Council's discretion.
11. If a user incurs three strikes, the user will lose their country and be banned from participating for one edition. For every three strikes, the numbers of editions a user is banned multiplies.
12. MaRtIn can extend the voting period at the convenience of his personal schedule.
13. Results videos are usually posted within two days after the voting period closes.

## Ranking

1. In NNMC, there are two official categories for rankings: User and Country.
	* The purpose of the User Ranking is to determine the top 25 users who have earned the privilege of confirming on Day 1.
2. Each ranking is calculated based on the overall placement of the user/country and the total number of participants. This ranking is cumulative and rewards regular participants. The amount of points that the winning user/country gets is always the total number of participants of an edition. For users who did not qualify from the semifinals, their ranking will be determined by their overall performance.
	* For example, in an edition of 60 participants/country, the winning user/country gets 37 points, while the lowest-ranking user/country overall gets 1 point.

## Spin-Off Contests

1. Song of the Year is an annual contest in which the ten NNMC winners of each year compete. Everyone in the forum is invited to vote for their favorite song.
2. The Second Chance Contest is an annual contest in which entries that did not win any NNMC national selection within the past year are allowed to participate. It is solely organized by Niall.