Rock Contest

Rock Contest is a live showcase competition for emerging Italian solo artists and bands who write and perform their own material. The prizes are production money and studio time rather than a straight cash award: the winner gets up to EUR 3,000 put towards an artistic project of their choosing, second place receives five days at SAM Recordings, and third place up to EUR 1,500 for a project. Side awards backed by the Tuscany region add production packages worth EUR 2,000 each, including around 20 hours of mentoring, for the best lyrics on youth themes and on social commitment.

It is open to artists from anywhere in Italy, in any genre and any language, who are free of a recording or publishing contract and are under 35 (for bands, that is a maximum average age). Entering means uploading three original songs, no covers, along with a biography, a stage plan and photographs, and paying a EUR 25 administration fee. The entry form and the rules are in Italian.

A preselection jury chooses 30 acts, who are then asked to film a live video of one song and play one of five elimination nights in Florence, leading to two semi-finals and a December final at Tenax. Juries mix musicians, label scouts, promoters and festival programmers with public voting, and acts travelling from outside Tuscany are reimbursed on a published scale.