Before you enter the Showcase

Entry is free. We do not charge artists to be seen by us. If that ever changes we will tell you before it does, and it will not change for anything you have already entered.

We are not an agency. The Global Ikon is not a talent agency, a management company, an employment agency or any kind of representation service. We do not promise you auditions, introductions, bookings, a deal or a career, and entering buys you none of those things.

We choose, and taste is not appealable. Selection, advancement and elimination are decided by us and our judges in our sole discretion, and are final. We are not obliged to show any entry. Entering guarantees nothing and gives you no claim if it comes to nothing. If we get a fact wrong, that is different, and there is a real route to correct it.

Your work stays yours, and your audition is for our eyes only. What you send us to be assessed is held for internal review and selection. We take no rights in it at all, we do not publish it, and that is why we ask for a link rather than a file. If you later put work on the platform to be presented, that is a different thing and the permission below covers it. Entering gives us no option, no exclusivity and no cut of anything you do. If we ever want to sign you, that is a separate agreement, on separate paper, with your own lawyer, and you can say no and stay in the Showcase.

Two things to know before you agree. If we breach these terms your remedy is damages, and you agree not to try to stop the Showcase going out; your right to seek public injunctive relief is unaffected. And you agree not to reveal results before we announce them.

We may edit, excerpt and present your entry, including in ways you may not like, and you consent to that. That consent does not cover any statement of fact about you that we publish knowing it to be false.

If we sign an artist, we mark them as ours, on the row, everywhere they appear, and they are judged by the same published criteria as everyone else or excluded from the category.

You take part as yourself, not as our employee. You choose when, where and how you record.

If you are selected, this is what happens to what we make

We will film and record you, and everything we make is ours. Episodes, performance films, session and backstage footage, interviews, photography, trailers. All of it belongs to The Global Ikon outright and permanently, whether you go out in the first round or reach the end, and whether or not we ever use it.

You are paid a flat fee for taking part. Agreed in writing before anything is filmed. You get it whether you win or go out early. It is not a royalty and it does not grow if the season does well.

You are credited for what you actually did. Sang it, wrote on it, produced it, engineered it, played on it. Credit follows the work, not the result. Where a credit carries a payment beyond the participation fee, that is written down too.

Some of what you appear in will have been made by other people. Songs written elsewhere, tracks produced elsewhere. Everyone is credited and paid for their part.

What stays yours. The songs you wrote before you came, and the masters you already own. We are not taking your catalogue. What we own is what we made.

And if you bring something of your own into the making of it, a song you already wrote, a recording you already own, we agree that separately, in writing, item by item, before it is used. How much of it we take in, whether it can be edited or developed, who else works on it, the credit and the payment. None of that is assumed and none of it happens automatically.

But if you just start singing your own song on camera, that one works differently, and you need to know before you do it. We would rather agree it with you first, and we will say so again at the workshop. If you sing it, hum it or play it anyway, in the moment, we can use that performance in the show and in promoting the show, and we do not pay you for it. You keep the song. It stays yours, you can release it, and we take no share of it. If we then want to take the song properly and build something out of it, that is a separate conversation with credit and money in it.

Somebody else's song is the one case where that does not work. If you sing a song you did not write, your permission does not help us, because it was never yours to give. We will cut it. If it costs us money to fix, we will ask you to cover what it actually cost, on an invoice, and never more than it cost. That is not a fine and we will never take it out of what we owe you.

And please do not sing other people's songs on a live stream, ours or your own, while the season is running, or give away what happens before we show it. Same reasons, and we will explain them properly at the workshop.

After the first season the arrangement changes, and the new terms will be put in front of you in writing, in advance, before you agree to anything.

None of that happens by ticking a box here. If you are selected we send you the full agreement with the fees and credits attached, and you sign it before anything is filmed. This is us telling you now, so that nothing is a surprise later.

The rest

Anyone can enter, at any age. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian signs for you and your music is assessed exactly the same way. Taking part on camera is 18 and over for this first season, and that is about the law protecting young people rather than anything about the music.

We decide, and our decision is final. Everything you enter or suggest is dealt with at our discretion. We do not owe you reasons. What we will not do is decide dishonestly or decide against anyone because of who they are.

Everything you tell us must be true, and if you are entering on someone else's behalf you must be authorised and able to prove it.

We try to look after you. We moderate comments on performances, there is a named person you can contact, and we signpost support. This is what we do, and it does not make us responsible for how taking part feels.