Submission Guidelines: All music must be original and not contain copyrighted content. Any lyrics should be kept non-explicit since this is a public challenge. Song length has a soft cap at 4 minutes (no 45 minute drone pieces, please). Once you have completed the challenge, fill out this Google Form to submit your song.
The Two Hour Album Challenge (2HAC) is a community-driven challenge to collectively start and complete an album of music in two hours.
At the start of the challenge, a theme is chosen randomly. Each participant then writes a song with that theme in mind using a strict time limit of two hours. When the challenge concludes, songs are collected from the artists and an album is posted on Bandcamp.
There are many benefits to working with limitations. Primarily, it helps sharpen your creative skills and allows you to approach and overcome problems in a unique environment. Having a clock ticking can teach you how to focus your creative energy on a singular project without distractions. This challenge is also a valuable opportunity to collaborate and network with other artists!
People of all skill levels are welcome to participate in this challenge. If at the end of the challenge you aren't happy with what you've made, you aren't obligated to submit anything. The act of attempting the challenge can be incredibly valuable.
If you're at least a little interested, it's recommended you give it a try! One of the primary ways to improve as an artist is to make lots of weird things and this is a fun excuse to do just that!
Most definitely! All music is still under your control to be used however you wish. You would just be granting the 2HAC team non-exclusive rights to stream and distribute your song via Bandcamp.
The first step would be to join the Abstractionaut Discord community and announce yourself in the #two_hour_album_challenge channel. You'll be added to a group which will get notified when the next challenge is planned.
If you don't use Discord, please get in touch with @ben_burnes on Twitter and we can work something out.
Not everyone has a flexible schedule. It feels unfair to exclude so many people who may have work or other commitments. Leaving the challenge open for an entire weekend will allow more people the time to not only participate in the challenge, but also watch other people create their song too!
No, but it's recommended if you are able. Recording your challenge will allow you to share your production process with others and maybe inspire them as well! Waching other people work and solve problems can be very valuable to evolving as a creator.
Well, I mean, you can. Nobody is going to stop you. But remember that this isn't a competition. There is no "best song" award here. Cheating at a personal creative challenge is just hurting yourself in the long run.
By default, the 2HAC albums will cost $0 to download. However, if someone is kind enough to purchase a 2HAC album, proceeds will be donated to a local animal rescue Angel of Hope. Also, Bandcamp only offers 200 free album downloads per month, some proceeds might go to purchasing more free downloads if necessary (1000 downloads costs $20).