FAQ

Since 2006 for us it means "Record Production Month."

The RPM is an annual creative challenge to anyone to record original music during the month of February. You set your own length goal, and we give you a deadline of March 1 to complete your project. We host a massive online listening party to celebrate where we listen to one track from each project. And all completed projects are displayed on our annual RPM Challenge winners list. Tens of thousands of albums and close to a hundred thousand tracks have been made as part of the Challenge since it was founded in 2006, with submissions having come from every single continent on Earth! It's a non-competitive challenge, meant to inspire creative courage and to encourage everyone to explore their own creativity.

Since the RPM is a creative challenge, not a contest, the rules are pretty simple: • All recordings must be original and unreleased. (Please no covers or remixes!) • All recordings must be produced in the month of February. • To successfully complete the RPM Challenge you have to mark it complete before March 1, 2025 at 11:59pm. This is done by completing a form on the site. Some more details and advice: • Above all, this is a challenge to motivate you to finish something! • Although lots of people start from scratch, you can use the RPM to complete work you started before February. • To celebrate, in early March we host a global online listening party where we play one track or excerpt from each of the completed projects. • Have fun!

You can sign up to create a single (1-4 tracks), an EP (at least 5 tracks or 20 minutes), or an album (at least 10 tracks or 35 minutes). The album goal of 10 songs or 35 minutes is the original RPM Challenge, and it's the one we recommend to everyone. Hard things are good to do!

No, the RPM Challenge is a challenge, not a contest. Of course finishing the challenge will mean you've made a record of your own music — and that's a reward you'll have given yourself. Isn't that nice?

Not at all. The RPM Challenge is for everybody! Any age, any skill level. It's a great chance to try making music at the same time as thousands of other people around the world. The only expectations on quality are set by you.

Lots of experienced musicians use the RPM Challenge as a way to work on new material, try out a new genre, make a new band, or just have fun making something different. We also tell professional musicians that they're welcome to submit under a pseudonym or different band name! We won't tell anyone.

Listen! It doesn't need to be good! Go ahead and make something intentionally terrible! But be warned: You will definitely fail and accidentally make something good because you will have so much fun doing it. It's inevitable.

I mean, what is music anyway?? We keep the rules flexible to allow for people to record any audio they want, including noise, comedy records, field recordings, poetry readings, audiobooks, whatever. Is it sound? Go ahead and make it.

Of course! Lots of people do. Submitting anonymously can really help overcome any anxiety about whether people will like the music or not. Making a record under a pseudonym is likely to even help you make music that sounds more like yourself, weirdly enough. To create an account we do need a real email address, but we'll only use it for RPM-related communications. You can manage your preferences or delete your account at any time.

No, of course it isn't! So you've lost a couple of minutes, a handful of hours, a few days, whatever! That's no reason not to come on board. If there's any time in February left, it's time for you to write and record new music.

You're in good company. Ask anyone mid-February how it's going and they'll say "shitty" or "I don't want to talk about it." Then a week later they've finished their record. This is normal. The struggle is part of it. If you're truly stuck, here are some things that have helped people: • Make something terrible on purpose • Improvise something and call it done • Ask for help on the site or on Discord • Remember that nobody's going to hear it unless you want them to The goal right now isn't to make something good. The goal right now is to get it done.

No worries! On the finish line form just mark your project complete at the appropriate level. If you set out to do an album but ended up recording a single, pick that! The goal is there for you alone, and nobody's gonna know.

What you make is your own, so it's all up to you what you choose to do with it at the end of February. At the end of the month we always encourage you to mark your project complete and submit music for the online listening party and for the site, but you don't have to, it's yours!

You have until the last minute of March 1 on Earth (11:59pm UTC-12) to mark your record complete. Before you can complete the form on our site, you'll need to do a few things: Please put your RPM Challenge record online using a service like Alonetone, Bandcamp, Audiomack, or Soundcloud, then copy that public link. Select one track from your record. This is your "preferred track". Have an MP3 file of that track (10MB or less) ready. We will use this for the listening party, the radio stream, and archive it on our site. Please keep it under 7 minutes or so. Have your cover art ready to upload. This image file should also be 10MB or less. Once you have all that, you can complete our submission form here. It's similar to the sign up form. We don't have an account system on the site, so we'll ask you questions about you and your project again.

You do! You own all of your work! We make no claim to it. At the end of the month we ask people you send us a single track for the listening party and for archiving on our site, but you can ask to have this removed at any time.

You can! You can make an online donation to Unpossible NL, the coordinators of the RPM Challenge, using this form. We are a registered nonprofit and you can be sure that any donation you give us will help with our RPM Challenge website fees, help with events and workshops, and help us keep running this beautiful, magical thing. We don't have charitable tax status so we can't issue charitable receipts.

We're always looking for local partner organizations—community radio stations, nonprofits, student groups, music festivals—to act as RPM Hubs. Hubs can encourage people to take the Challenge and can host listening parties or other RPM-related workshops or events. Email elling@rpmchallenge.com with any ideas you have.

One of the biggest things you can do to help is to spread the word by telling your friends, posting on social media, and telling local media outlets about it.

Way back in 2006 The Wire magazine created the RPM Challenge for their hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 2006, and everyone had so much fun, next year they opened it up to the whole world. Can't keep a good idea down!

After 15 years running the RPM Challenge around the world, the founders Dave Karlotski and Karen Marzloff in Portsmouth, New Hampshire officially handed the torch to Elling Lien at Unpossible NL to run the international creative challenge starting in 2021. Unpossible NL is a teeny arts organization based in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. We coordinate educational and non-competitive projects that foster creative courage, and which encourage community, equity and diversity.