AI music contests 2026: what's open, what's closed and how to enter

AI music contests open now (as of October 28, 2026)

NEXT SOUND Awards 2026

NEXT SOUND bills itself as a global AI music award, with ten $1,000 prizes for a $10,000 pool: best single and best LP in Pop, Electronic, Cinematic and Experimental, plus an overall best single and best LP. Entries opened October 1 and close December 1, 2026 at 23:59 UTC.

• Eligibility: 18 or older, and the music must use at least one AI tool in its creation or production. You have to say which tools did what. Generative AI is not required, but AI used only for artwork, admin or metadata does not count.
• Judging: at least three jurors score each work from 0 to 10, and registered listeners rate tracks until January 15, 2027. The final score is 80% jury and 20% adjusted audience rating, and winners are due by March 31, 2027.
• Rights: your music stays yours, but entering grants NEXT SOUND a non-exclusive, five-year license to stream and promote it on its own site, apps and channels.

AIMEE Awards 2026–2027

The AIMEE (AI Music Excellence and Education) Awards are run by The Academy of AI Music, with 108 awards across eight fields, from genre and production to AI craft, education and ethics. Entries close December 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. The official timeline puts judging in January 2027, nominees in February and the ceremony in San Francisco in May 2027.

• Eligibility: work first released between January 1 and December 31, 2026. For the general, genre and craft awards, AI must have made a meaningful, disclosed contribution to the specific craft being judged.
• Cost: $10 per entry, non-refundable, unless the Academy waives it.
• Know before you enter: the official rules say entrants are not entitled to scores, comments or feedback.

Chroma Awards Season 2 (AI music videos)

The Chroma Awards, incubated by ElevenLabs, is a large AI film and media competition. Season 2 opened on October 19, 2026, with a cash and travel prize pool of more than $450,000 across divisions for film, music videos, ads, games and behind-the-scenes entries. The Music Video division has six genre categories (Country, Blues & Indie; Electronic & EDM; Experimental & Open Format; Hip-Hop, Rap & R&B; Pop & Asia Pop; Rock, Metal & Alternative), plus an ElevenLabs Music Video of the Year award for videos whose soundtrack was made with ElevenMusic.

You need a video, not just a song: the official site lists no audio-only division. ElevenLabs' announcement gives the closing date as January 1, 2027 in one place and January 7, 2027 in another, with winners due on a livestream on February 11, 2027, so check the deadline on chromaawards.com before you plan around it.

AI Song Contest 2026: entries closed, final on November 29

The AI Song Contest is an international competition organized by Stichting AI Song Contest, a Dutch foundation. It has run every year since its first edition in Hilversum in 2020. Teams of musicians and AI experts each submit one song made with AI as a creative partner.

• 2026 status: submissions closed on September 27, 2026 (Anywhere on Earth time). A jury is picking 10 finalists for a public vote in November, and the award show is in Bangkok on November 29, 2026.
• Prize: $1,000 in cash and a trip to Bangkok for the award ceremony.
• Rules to know for next year: one song per team, no longer than 4 minutes, plus a process document that explains the AI tools and data used. Entries where the only human input is prompting, with no further editing of the audio, are disqualified.
• Judging: the winner has the most combined points from a professional jury and the international audience.

AI Song Contest winners

Uncanny Valley (Hilversum, 2020), M.O.G.I.I.7.E.D. (Liège, 2021), Yaboi Hanoi (Liège, 2022), Synthetic Beat Brigade (A Coruña, 2023), Onda Corta (Zurich, 2024) and GENEALOGY (Amsterdam, 2025). The 2026 winner will be named in Bangkok on November 29.

Other AI music competitions: past editions

AI song contests on Suno and Udio

If you searched for a Suno AI song contest, here is the record. Suno ran official contests in 2024: The Summer of Suno (Vol. 1 launched a plan to pay $1 million to top creators that year; Vol. 2 paid $100,000 to 200 winners) and a remix contest with Flosstradamus that offered more than $100,000 in cash prizes. Suno's blog lists no contests from 2025 or 2026 as of October 28, 2026, and its help center points creators to the Suno Discord server for community contests.

Suno's newest program, Spark, is not a contest. It is an incubator for unsigned, independent artists aged 18 and over, with grants, marketing funding and invitations to Suno writing camps. Applications opened June 25, 2026, and the announcement lists no closing date.

Udio ran tag-and-publish song challenges between October 2024 and February 2025, with Halloween, holiday and Valentine's themes. You tagged a published song, Udio staff picked winners on quality, theme fit, plays and likes, and prizes included Udio Pro time and playlist features. Udio's help center lists no newer challenges.

Check the rights before you enter a Suno song. Suno says songs made on its free plan are for personal, non-commercial use and cannot be monetized, while songs downloaded on a paid plan come with commercial rights. NEXT SOUND requires that you own or control the rights to what you submit, and the AI Song Contest disqualifies prompt-only entries, so read each rulebook first.

Is there an AI singing competition?

Most searches for an "AI singing competition" lead to the AI Song Contest, which judges complete songs rather than voices. We did not find a major competition judged on AI vocals alone. Voice cloning is where most rules draw the line: SIQA's chart can disqualify unauthorized AI recreations of a real voice or likeness, and the Recording Academy says only a human performer can be recognized in Grammy performance categories. If your entry uses an AI voice, make sure it is an original voice, not a copy of a real singer.

HOOKFIGHTS: a free AI song battle every day

The contests above run once a year. If you want your AI song judged by listeners now, HOOKFIGHTS runs battles every day. New battles drop at 18:00 UTC: two hooks from released AI songs, 15–30 seconds each, voted on blind for 24 hours. Every result updates an ELO rating, and each season of 28 daily ladder battles ends in a playoff bracket for the top-rated hooks.

Entering is free. You upload the released song, pick the hook in your browser, add the cover, a release link and an AI-disclosure label, and a person reviews it, usually within 48 hours. Songs only battle songs in the same language, and the English League is live now. See how to enter, or read our guide to AI music battles.

How to choose an AI songwriting contest

• Find the official rules page. If you cannot find the organizer's own rules, do not pay a fee.
• Check the time zone. The deadlines in this guide use UTC, Pacific Time and Anywhere on Earth time.
• Read the AI rules. Some contests reject prompt-only songs; others accept any AI tool but require you to disclose it.
• Read the license. Entering can give the organizer the right to stream or promote your track, sometimes for years.
• Know what you get back. Some awards give no feedback at all. If you want to know how listeners react, see how to get your AI song rated.
• Plan the release around it. A contest result helps most when people can find the song afterward; our guide to promoting AI music covers the next step.