It just ain't House Music until we take a fun idea and run it into the ground.

This weekend, I received four - count 'em, four - emails from labels promoting "remix contests". I've been seeing this everywhere, from Evolution Media to Depeche Mode to Mariah Carey to Jay-J to Radiohead

Would it kill anyone to try a little creativity in their promotions, though? Trumpeting a remix contest in 2009 is like bragging that the streets are cleaner since those horseless carriages came around.

It's actually gotten so bad that there are even spam sites (click at your own risk) which purport to gather info about all of the wonderful remix contests for all of the wonderful artists across the big wide internet.

Yes, there are that many.

Here are results #1 through #10 of the four hundred and three thousand hits on Google for "remix contest". I'm not even sure 403,000 tracks were released this year in the entire world, from dance music to Mongolian throat singers.

Okay, we get it: you're open about your music and want to encourage people to enjoy it. You're all Web 2.0, you want to give a youngblood a chance to shine, it's all about the fans and giving back. I'll even believe you've got the best intentions. Just try something else, okay? Maybe give away a couple of the filler tracks - maybe an instrumental or a dub - rather than charge for them? Or since everyone's dumping 3 or 4 filler tracks with every release, how about a sliding scale? I bet you might see more sales if you throw in that "Super Re-Rub Instrumental Bonus" for $0.99 on Traxsource.

It's at least worth a try rather than driving an already tired trend straight into the ground.

There's something similar to the "remix contest" in graphic design. In fact, most trade organizations take a very dim view of "design contests", particularly when they're run by corporations seeking "fan input" for new logo designs or what not. It's fine if you're a college student looking for a challenge, but it's been long understood that design contests are often a dishonest way for a client to get free work - work produced "on spec" albeit without admitting it as such, because most designers won't work on spec.

If you're a producer, and you're serious about it, neither should you. There may be an appalling glut over music on the market these days, but there's never been a better time for someone to break into the game. You don't need to be bought and sold as a cog in someone else's promotional machine to get 'er done.