I never have, but I'd love to! Off to google it up now...

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle....

This started in Portsmouth NH in 2006. I lived 20 minutes away from there till 2004. I remembered some musician friends telling me about a competition to write a song in a short period of time, but I was getting out of the music scene, and didn't look into it.

Evidently it's doing well. :D

I love their FAQ:

Is it a good idea to record 35 minutes of jaw harp through a delay pedal while someone chants the names of all the fast food restaurants?

Yes.

Tripple zomgosh...this challenge starts today! (kinda makes sense why you posted it today). I'm totally making a run for it.

For those unfamiliar, this is an informal challenge in its 6th year to write* and record an album of originals (10 songs, 35 minutes) in the 28 days of February. Submissions have to be mailed in, postmarked March 1st or earlier.

This is simply a challenge to up your creativity, but it's gotten a decent amount of press.

Details here:

http://rpmchallenge.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=844...

*The rules say it's actually ok to use material that you've written before Feb 1 as long as it's unreleased and you haven't started recording it already. This is kind awkward for me, as the act of writing and recording go hand in hand for me with Nanostudio. I don't start "writing" a song without also starting to record it. This is more a personal dilemma than a rules issue, as they make it clear that they aren't going to put significant effort into policing. Either way, I'm going to see if I can put together 10 fresh starts, and push them to the point where I won't be completely embarrassed by them being shared.

We could also form a band and submit 10 collaborations ...

I'd totally participate in that, but I'm making it a personal challenge, 1st priority. This is a chance to push myself and supercharge the songwriting with a clear conscience. (I typically beat myself up when I don't spend enough time polishing)

If I come out of this with a rough 10 song album, of which 3 songs polish up nice, I'll still be well ahead of my typical pace.

I do like the idea of "starting a band" for collaboration though. I'd love to have a side project where each person "played an instrument", ie one person was in charge of bass, one person was in charge of drums, one or two people in charge of 'keys', one singer. It's an interesting concept. It would probably be frustrating for an exercise like this though, as one of the people would invariably have to bow out, or get delayed, and the others could get pretty frustrated as the deadline approached.

You are right, this has to be an individual pursuit.

Excellent MCO, saw your forum post on the rpm site. I found out about it in it's second year through an NPR story on All Things Considered and signed up. Later that year I did the NaNoWriMo challenge after being pumped about these challenge projects. It really is great to get motivated. I haven't done this in a couple of years and should've been writing last night.

As far as collaborations go, this is also how I found out about CC Mixter (ccmixter.org) which is an online remixing site. Check it out. There were people on the rpm forums making a completely collaborative album and I jumped in. Did several remixes over the period of a year or so, but haven't done much of that lately either. Best of luck guys!

I signed up for the challenge. User name : "Tiny elephant".

Congrats and good luck! It's breaking my brain so far, but in a good way.

2 songs up so far. Definitely hard to *not* polish, and instead focus on writing more.

http://soundcloud.com/mcobigben/sets/rpm-challenge-2012/

3rd song is up. With only 19 days left, I am seriously behind at this point. 4th one is about 85% done, but after that, all I have are stubbs.

Goodbye sleep!

@MCOBigBen keep it up !

I'm pretty sure I wont finish in time this year, but I'll wrap up the album later in march.

4th one done! This is kind of a re-imagining of one of my older tracks which started off as a Cranes ripoff/tribute. I think it's safely drifted out of ripoff territory now.

The RPM Challenge podcast featured My Robot Friend! I'm so tickled.

Also, a public access new Hampshire TV show featured 28 Days. I wish I had more pic to send them. I look like a carp. I did get 2 NanoStudio shots in though! Sorry it was too blurry to see the name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCkxpioDix0&feature=player_embedded

Well done !

I'm impressed.