Terms of entry

These terms are between World Harmonies ("we", "us"), of Seattle, Washington, United States, and the person submitting an entry.

Where the participant is under 18, the entry is submitted by their parent or guardian, and these terms are agreed by that adult on the participant's behalf. The participant does not enter into an agreement with us directly and is not asked to.

Entry is open to musicians aged 4 and over. There is no upper age limit.

Entry is open to residents of the countries listed on the registration form. That list is fixed: an entry cannot be submitted from a country that is not on it, because each country we accept brings its own consent and data-protection obligations that we have to be able to meet.

One entry per person, on one instrument. The email address given identifies the entry. An address that already has a paid entry cannot be used for a second one — a parent entering two children needs a separate address for each, or can ask us to create the second entry for them.

We may disqualify an entry that breaks these terms or the competition rules. The clearest case is eligibility: the competition is for musicians who are not performance majors, and an entry from someone who is may be disqualified whenever we find out, including after a result has been published.

We may also disqualify an entry where the recording is not what it claims to be — edited, assembled from several takes, performed by somebody else, or presented with a different name or piece from the one entered.

Where a competition states a performance time limit on its own page, a recording that runs over it may be disqualified. We would rather tell you the limit than apply this clause, which is why it is on the competition's page, in the rules and beside the field where you give us the link.

Attempting to interfere with this site, the entry process or the judging is grounds for disqualification, and we may take it further where the law allows.

A disqualified entry forfeits any prize and is removed from the winners page. The entry fee is not refunded, because the work of judging has already been done.

The fee is shown on the registration form before you submit, and is the same for every entrant regardless of age group, instrument or country. There are no discounts, promotional codes or tiered prices.

An entry is not complete until the fee is paid. Unpaid entries are kept and are visible to us, clearly marked as unpaid, and can be completed later using the link we email you.

Payment is taken by our payment provider on a page hosted by them. We never see or hold your card details. Where your bank applies a cross-border or currency-conversion charge, that is between you and your bank and is not something we can reconcile or refund.

The entry fee is not refundable. Once it is paid the fee is not returned — whether or not you go on to submit a video, and whether or not you withdraw.

The one exception is ours rather than yours: if we call off a competition before judging, we refund in full, as set out below. Any refund we do make is made by us directly rather than through this site, so there is a short delay while we process it.

Ask about a payment, including one you believe was taken twice, at info@theworldharmonies.org from the address you entered with.

If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom or the EEA you have a statutory right to cancel a distance contract within fourteen days, and nothing in these terms removes a right you have under the law of your own country. Where you cancel under that right after we have begun judging, we may keep a proportionate part of the fee for the work already done.

Withdrawing is separate from refunding, and still available: a withdrawn entry drops out of the competition but is not deleted, and keeps its registration ID and any scores already recorded.

A performance video is submitted as a link to YouTube. We do not host, store or copy the video itself, and you keep whatever rights you have in it.

The link must be to a standard YouTube video. Links to YouTube Shorts are not accepted, because a full performance is required.

The link can be added or changed as often as you like until the video deadline shown on the registration form. After that the entry becomes read-only.

It is your responsibility to keep the video reachable. A video set to private, deleted, or removed by YouTube may leave your entry unable to be judged. We do not check this for you.

You keep every right you have in your performance and your recording. Entering grants us no ownership of either. We never hold a copy — a video stays on your own YouTube account, and we store only the link.

What you do grant us, by entering, is permission to show your name, age group, instrument, country, prize and the video link you gave us on the winners page and in material about the competition. For a winner under the age of majority this is separate from, and conditional on, the publication consent described below: nothing is published about them unless their guardian agrees to it.

Our own name, logo, site, text and photographs are ours. Nothing here gives you a right to use them beyond saying truthfully that you entered or placed in the competition.

You are responsible for having the right to perform and record the music you submit. Where a work is still in copyright, that is between you and its rights holder.

Each judge gives one overall score. The range in force is printed on the judging sheet.

A participant's result is the arithmetic mean of the scores given by the judges who scored them.

Where two participants have the same average, the system does not separate them. Any decision between tied participants is made by us, outside this system.

Scores, judges' comments and rankings are not published and are not shown to participants. Anything we choose to tell entrants about results is communicated separately.

Judging decisions are final. We do not operate an appeals process.

If a participant wins a prize, we may publish a short record of it: the year, the competition, a display name, the age group, the instrument, the country, the prize, and the video link if one was published.

This only happens if it was agreed to at registration, separately from these terms. It is optional and is not a condition of entering, and we confirm by email before publishing anything.

Winners under 18 are shown by first name and last initial unless their guardian has separately agreed to the full name being used.

Agreement to be published can be withdrawn at any time, by the route stated on the winners page itself.

We may correct details on an entry, including where a participant has lost access to their email address, after verifying who they are. Every such change is logged.

We may refuse or remove an entry that is fraudulent, abusive, or submitted in breach of these terms.

We may change the competition dates, the judging panel or these terms. Where a change materially affects entries already submitted, we will tell the affected entrants by email.

We may change a competition's dates, its categories, its prizes or its rules before entries close, and we will say so on the competition's own page when we do.

We may also suspend or call off a competition entirely. If we do that before judging, we refund entry fees. If we do it after judging has begun, we will say what we are doing about fees at the time — we would rather decide that in front of the circumstances than promise something here that turns out to be the wrong answer.

Neither of these is the same as the events outside our control described under Limits, which we handle separately.

We run this competition carefully but we do not guarantee that the site is available without interruption, or that a payment, email or video link will always work.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

[JURISDICTION AND GOVERNING LAW — for counsel.]

By entering, you agree not to hold us responsible for loss, injury or damage arising from taking part — including at a recital or award ceremony, where you are responsible for your own travel, your instrument and anyone who comes with you.

If you win a place at a recital, attending is your choice and your expense. We do not arrange or pay for travel, accommodation or an accompanist.

This does not limit anything we cannot limit by law, and it does not cover our own negligence.