How do you get to be DuetOfTheWeek?

[yogasinggirl]

I’m trying to get to be duet oftheweek. How do you get to be that?

[opentype]

How Smule explains it:

How to Participate on Smule Duet of the Week:

• Hashtag your performance with #DuetoftheWeek.
• Get friends and followers to join, favorite, comment, give gifts, and love.

How to Become a Winner of Smule Duet of the Week:

• Duets with the most creativity and engagement are more likely to win. So, encourage your friends and followers to join, favorite, gift, and tap love on your performance to increase your chances of being chosen. Also, the more performances you create, the better chances you have to become the winner!

We will select the Smule Duet of the Week winners on Sunday and feature it on Monday! 

[The Minty Clinch]

Be sure to choose a Taylor Swift song rather than a GG Allin song. That’s obviously where I’ve been going wrong.

[yogasinggirl]

But when you do Taylor swift hers are all copyrighted. You have to choose an older song. How do you know which Smule songs are copyrighted. They say you can put them on fb and IG but then they say the platforms have rules and you can’t put any song on those social medias ? 

[The Minty Clinch]

I’ve managed to have 3,000 uploads stick around, but it’s a long and boring story. Open type can tell you 😅

[yogasinggirl]

What’s open type?

[Wishchip]

On 9/16/2024 at 8:51 PM, yogasinggirl said:

I’m trying to get to be duet of the week. How do you get to be that?

I've been following the Duet of the Week winners with some interest for a few months now, and while Smule explains how you can win, it's not how people actually win.

If there were one of those YES/NO flowcharts of how DOTW winners are often chosen, it would basically break down like this:

Is your song officially uploaded by @Smule?
Yes - (Good. Go to the next section)
No - Is your song uploaded by one of our paid and promoted artists?
Yes - (Good. Go to the next section)
No - You will never win Duet of the Week.

Are you popular and/or a member of one of the 10 most popular groups* on Smule?
Yes - (Good. Go to the next section)
No - Are you singing with someone who’s popular and/or a member of one of the 10 most popular groups on Smule?
Yes - (Good. Go to the next section)
No - You will never win Duet of the Week.

Does your duet feature the #DuetoftheWeek hashtag?
Yes - (Good. Go to the next section)
No - No worries, because in certain instances, Smule has allegedly picked their favourite duet for that week and simply asked the opener to add #DuetoftheWeek to their duet so they can be featured and that everything appears legit. Go to the next section.

Congrats, you've won Duet of the Week!

(*including, but not limited to, ACE_Recordings, APEXTeam, badassadors, jazzology, PremierVocals, teamhonor, vinyltribe and xxii_official)

One only has to see the similarities in recent DOTW winners to know this is unfortunately true. "Getting friends and followers to join, favorite, comment, give gifts, and love" doesn't matter. Having a duet "with the most creativity and engagement" doesn't matter. Creating more performances doesn't matter. What matters is who you sing with, who you're friends with and making sure you're singing an upload by Smule.

And I'm not saying this out of malice or spite, as I personally have no desire to ever win Duet of the Week. But this is the kind of information that people who are truly interested in winning DOTW should know. If anyone reading can dispute this, I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

[opentype]

31 minutes ago, yogasinggirl said:

How do you know which Smule songs are copyrighted.

Pretty much every song is. 

The safest bet is using the official Smule cover songs. (not the “community songbook” songs)

[The Minty Clinch]

Only 75% rating for a Smule upload there. I’d be embarrassed at such a poor score.

[Wishchip]

5 minutes ago, The Minty Clinch said:

Only 75% rating for a Smule upload there. I’d be embarrassed at such a poor score.

I have a few excellent uploads in the mid to low 80s and I'm positive people are simply misinformed.

[The Minty Clinch]

2 minutes ago, Wishchip said:

I have a few excellent uploads in the mid to low 80s and I'm positive people are simply misinformed.

Or an evil fellow uploader of the same song has recruited an army of drones to go in and downvote yours . Many of mine are hidden from both bots and users’ prying eyes. I don’t give a monkeys who uses mine or how they rate them.

Edited September 19 by The Minty Clinch

[Wishchip]

1 minute ago, The Minty Clinch said:

😈

I really hope that doesn't happen often, but knowing how some people operate on Smule, it wouldn't surprise me.

[yogasinggirl]

What are the top 10 groups

[Wishchip]

5 minutes ago, yogasinggirl said:

What are the top 10 groups

ACE_Recordings, APEXTeam, badassadors, jazzology, PremierVocals, teamhonor, vinyltribe and xxii_official get the most attention from friends in high Smule places. I'm sure there's a couple more, but I can't think of what they are right now.

Edited September 19 by Wishchip

[yogasinggirl]

How do I send my duet to the top 10 groups?

[opentype]

Before investing time in those competitions, it’s worth considering what everyone gets from them. For Smule, it’s good advertising. So, not surprisingly they have a tendency to feature beautiful people with exceptional voices. I’m not complaining about that. It’s perfectly understandable. 
The singers getting featured maybe get a couple hundreds views for that featured performance, maybe 10 new followers and that’s it. It can be nice, but it also doesn’t change the Smule experience in any meaningful or lasting way. 

Based on that, I would say that most Smule singers don’t even need to bother with those competitions. The people who stand out on the app will gain visibility anyway, simply because they stand out. The average singers might have no chance to be featured anyway and even if they could make it, they have very little to gain from it. 

[DuetWithAlli]

So basically, it’s a popularity contest. And a Smule butt kissing award. Smule is like high school all over again. Either you’re part of the cool kids club, or you’re not. How many people look at the winners of #DuetOfTheWeek other than the winners? The answer is simple: Wishchip. Wishchip looks at the DOTW winners. That’s supposed to be funny — I love that you track this stuff. But I’m thinking most people don’t really care. Other than the winners.

[The Minty Clinch]

Millions of smulers have no interest in competitions. I’ve never watched X Factor or the Voice or any of those ‘talent’ shows, nor will I. I take my singing seriously sometimes, but not in that way. But if people do, that’s their prerogative and good luck to them. 
 

As for the feed update, like wishchip and others, it’s not a huge deal as we don’t even use it.

[yogasinggirl]

I posted a song with the Smule symbol on reels but it posted my name so I deleted it. How do I post without my name showing?

[Wishchip]

14 hours ago, yogasinggirl said:

How do I send my duet to the top 10 groups?

Your best bet would be to search for those groups and join someone that belongs to one of those groups.

[Wishchip]

5 hours ago, DuetWithAlli said:

So basically, it’s a popularity contest. And a Smule butt kissing award. Smule is like high school all over again. Either you’re part of the cool kids club, or you’re not. How many people look at the winners of #DuetOfTheWeek other than the winners? The answer is simple: Wishchip. Wishchip looks at the DOTW winners. That’s supposed to be funny — I love that you track this stuff. But I’m thinking most people don’t really care. Other than the winners.

Hahaha. I mean, more people are looking at the Duet of the Week winners now that Smule is pushing it on app startup and into the News tab every week.

My interest in it mostly stemmed from me seeing lots of people online (and in these forums) asking how to be featured, how to gain more followers, how to be more popular and that sort of thing. I know Smule's wonky algorithm is partially to blame for us seeing the same featured users over and over again, but the algorithm doesn't pick Duet of the Week winners or any of the duets in the weekly or bi-weekly featured playlists. Those are hand-picked by Smule higher-ups who are in a position to reward their close friends (certain popular singers in popular groups) and toe the company line (duets that use official Smule uploads).

So yes, Duet of the Week is essentially a circle jerk amongst the most favoured and most popular users on the platform, and I think the more people realize that, the better off they'll be.

[DuetWithAlli]

On 9/20/2024 at 2:23 PM, Wishchip said:

Hahaha. I mean, more people are looking at the Duet of the Week winners now that Smule is pushing it on app startup and into the News tab every week.

My interest in it mostly stemmed from me seeing lots of people online (and in these forums) asking how to be featured, how to gain more followers, how to be more popular and that sort of thing. I know Smule's wonky algorithm is partially to blame for us seeing the same featured users over and over again, but the algorithm doesn't pick Duet of the Week winners or any of the duets in the weekly or bi-weekly featured playlists. Those are hand-picked by Smule higher-ups who are in a position to reward their close friends (certain popular singers in popular groups) and toe the company line (duets that use official Smule uploads).

So yes, Duet of the Week is essentially a circle jerk amongst the most favoured and most popular users on the platform, and I think the more people realize that, the better off they'll be.

Oh, true! I hadn’t given much notice to how Smule has pushed it, but I may have even accidentally clicked on the featured duet once.

Omg … I think what Smule needs is a name change! Smule Circle Jerk! It would be a huge success, I just know it! In all seriousness, I agree. Chasing Smule fame seems like a recipe for disappointment and unhappiness for me personally. Some people really enjoy making themselves and their duets artificially popular, though. To each their own.

Edited September 21 by DuetWithAlli

[Guest]

I agree, the # this that or whatever, duet of the week, yadda yadda, to each their own. It seems like the duets of the week are the smule butt kissers, i sing songs to sing, throw on whatever, and could care less about my appearance, and actually im attracted to the women that are tomboys and dont bother dolling themselves up because they are already beautiful. But to the general public appearance matters because its considered part of the performance. Some people are trying to build a brand and a following. Me i just sing karaoke songs, and hope i dont sound horrible. I never cared if i had followers, smule is my video game to unwind after work. I havent shaved in days and i think i wore the same shirt 2 days in a row in my video ocs lmao. To me its just Karaoke, be yourself and do what makes you happy, if dolling yourself up to get extra attention and try joining the cool kids club and be duet of the week. Or just put on some pajamas, no makeup on, be yourself, and have fun, so much sexier than women with 20 pounds of makeup. Sorry if that offends, but im a fan of plain jane girl next door tomboys that dont mind getting dirty, nòt high maintenance look at me look at me attention seekers.

[Wishchip]

Just to prove how much it doesn't matter to "get friends and followers to join, favorite, comment, give gifts, and love" and how it doesn't matter to have a duet "with the most creativity and engagement", this week's Duet of the Week (for Week 35 - 2024) at the time of this morning's announcement had only 17 plays, 4 likes, no gifts and 2 comments. So very little engagement at all.

But which boxes did it check off?
Was it a Smule upload? - CHECK.
Was Singer 1 a member of a popular group? - CHECK.
Was Singer 2 a member of a popular group? - CHECK.

I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point, and I certainly don't mean to be singling anyone out, but this is just how Duet of the Week is going these days.