The First Note Talent Search Competition

FIRST NOTE COMPETITION (23 OCTOBER 2025 – 19 DECEMBER 2025)
TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. Acceptance

1.1. I agree and undertake that I shall be bound by and comply with these terms and conditions for entry to the FIRST NOTE COMPETITION, which is a nationwide musical talent competition (“the Competition”). I understand and agree that in the event that I fail to comply with these terms and conditions of entry for any reason that my entry shall not be eligible and I shall be disqualified from the Competition. Whether there has been a failure to comply with these terms and conditions shall be decided in Yired (Pty) Ltd’s sole discretion, and shall be final and binding upon any entrant or potential entrant.

2. Terms and Conditions of Entry

2.1 In order to be able to enter the Competition and to be eligible to comply with these terms and conditions of entry, it is a condition that the person must be a resident of South Africa and 18 – 34 years of age, and be able to provide a valid South African identification document if required.

2.2 The Promoter of the Competition is Yired (Pty) Ltd with registration number 1996/014304/07 (“Promoter”).

2.3 The following people shall be ineligible participate in the Competition and be automatically disqualified:
2.3.1 Entrants signed to or under any contractual deal with any record label (major or independent).
2.3.2 Entrants under any form of management, distribution or publishing deal/s. This includes a recording deal, publishing deal and a PR deal.
2.3.3 Employees of the Promoter or the eMedia Investments (Pty) Ltd stable of companies.
2.3.4 Directors of the Promoter or the eMedia Investments (Pty) Ltd stable of companies.
2.3.5 Agents of the Promoter or the eMedia Investments (Pty) Ltd stable of companies.
2.3.6 Consultants of the Promoter or the eMedia Investments (Pty) Ltd stable of companies.
2.3.7 Any person who directly or indirectly controls or is controlled by the Promoter or marketing service providers in respect of the Competition;
2.3.8 Any person who is directly or indirectly controlled by the Promoter;
2.3.9 A supplier of goods or services in connection with the Competition;
2.3.10 Any other person who directly or indirectly controls or is controlled by the Promoter.
2.3.11 Spouses; life partners, business partners, immediate family members or close family members of all the above categories people as determined in the Promoter’s sole discretion.

2.4 The Promoter shall be entitled at its sole discretion to declare that any entry is not to be entered for the Competition and is disqualified. In such event Promoter shall not be obliged to the person who has entered to inform them of the reason of their disqualification nor shall it be liable for any damages in law.

2.5 All decisions of Promoter shall be final and binding and the Promoter shall not be obliged to enter into any correspondence, dialogue and/or otherwise with any person regarding any aspect of the Competition.

3. Cost and Method of Entry

To enter the Competition follow the steps below:
3.1 Between 1 October 2025 – 24 October 2025:
3.1.1 Create or use an existing TikTok account as an individual, duo, or group/band.
3.1.2 Post a video of yourself in any of South Africa’s 11 official languages on TikTok singing or rapping an original song or singing an acoustic cover from the TikTok library, taking the following criteria into account:
3.1.2.1 vocal flow;
3.1.2.2 vocal quality;
3.1.2.3 creativity;
3.1.2.4 originality;
3.1.2.5 video presentation and style;
3.1.2.6 timing and pacing;
3.1.2.7 trend awareness and relevance;
3.1.2.8 personality and on-camera presence;
3.1.2.9 replay value and hook;
3.1.2.10 lyrical content and message;
3.1.2.11 viral potential;
3.1.2.12 audience engagement.

3.1.3 Entries are closed 24 October 2025.
3.1.4 Tag the following TikTok accounts and use the hashtag “TheFirstNote”: “@yfm,” “@davidgreshamrecords”, @downtownmusicpublishingafrica” (Sponsor/s) on your Instagram or TikTok account.
3.1.5 A judging panel (comprised of the following persons which is subject to change at any time without notice): promoter’s Sponsor representatives, music executives and any other person/s selected by the Promoter) will review valid videos.
3.1.6 All validly posted videos shall be reviewed and rated by the judging panel in accordance with the criteria listed at clause 3.1.2. An external auditor shall oversee this process.
3.1.7 Consolidation of ratings shall occur by a party external to the judging panel.
3.1.8 The top 30 rated videos will be selected for the next round subject to external audit if applicable.
3.1.9 An external auditor shall oversee the steps described at clause 3.1.4 – 3.1.6 above.

3.1.10 The creators of the top 30 rated videos shall be contacted by the Promoter by 8 November 2025.
3.1.10.1 The Promoter shall request and require proof of identification. Such proof of identification must be provided to the Promoter within 72 hours of the Promoter’s request.
3.1.10.2 The Promoter shall conduct background checks to meet the criteria for entry of Competition.
3.1.10.3 Should any entrant not provide valid identification within 72 hours of request or fail the background check, they will forfeit their place. The Promoter will then contact the entrant with the next highest score to undergo identification verification and the background checks in order to be selected.
3.1.11 The Promoter shall request that the creators of the top 30 rated videos submit PR images and short video bios (one minute or less), to be used for public voting.
3.1.12 The Promoter shall post the following on the YFM TikTok channel on or before 11 November 2025:
3.1.12.1 the original video posted at clause 3.1.2 for the creators of the top 30 rated videos;
3.1.12.2 the PR images of the creators of the top 30 rated videos;
3.1.12.3 the short video bios of the creators of the top 30 rated videos;
3.2 The public shall be encouraged by the Promoter to vote on their preferred top 30 rated videos they prefer for the period 11 November 2025 – 18 November 2025, with the creators of the top 10 voted for videos advancing to the next stage.
3.3 The Promoter shall check the votes and create a list of creators of the top 10 most voted for videos. This shall be supervised by an external auditor.
3.4 The creators of the top 10 most voted for videos shall be contacted by the Promoter by 24 November 2025 and informed of the opportunity to follow the steps below to advance further in the Competition.

3.5 Between 24 November 2025 – 2 December 2025:
3.5.1 The creators of the top 10 most voted of videos may post a video of themselves in any of South Africa’s 11 official languages from the TikTok account from which they entered the Competition of themselves singing or rapping an original song or singing an acoustic cover from the TikTok library, taking the following criteria into account:
3.5.1.1 vocal flow;
3.5.1.2 vocal quality;
3.5.1.3 creativity
3.5.1.4 originality
3.5.1.5 video presentation and style
3.5.1.6 timing and pacing
3.5.1.7 trend awareness and relevance
3.5.1.8 personality and on-camera presence
3.5.1.9 replay value and hook
3.5.1.10 lyrical content and message
3.5.1.11 viral potential
3.5.1.12 audience engagement

3.6 Tag the following TikTok accounts and use the hashtag “TheFirstNote”: “@yfm,” “@davidgreshamrecords”, @downtownmusicpublishingafrica” on your Instagram or TikTok account.

3.7 The public shall be encouraged by the Promoter to vote on their preferred top 3 rated videos they prefer for the period 24 November 2025 – 2 December 2025, with the creators of the top 10 voted for videos advancing to the next stage.

3.8 The Promoter shall check the votes and create a list of creators of the top 3 most voted for videos. This shall be supervised by an external auditor.

3.9 The creators of the top 3 most voted for videos shall be contacted by the Promoter by 2 December 2025 and informed of the opportunity to follow the steps below to advance further in the Competition.

3.10 From 5 December 2025 to 8 December 2025, the creators of the top 3 most voted videos will be encouraged to make a video of themselves stating to the voting public why they deserve to win the Competition, and describing their favourite singer/rapper.

3.11 From 8 December 2025 – 14 December 2025:
3.11.1 The Promoter will post the videos from the creators of the top 3 most voted videos describing why the top 3 entered the Competition and motivating to the voting public why they deserve to win the Competition, and describing their favourite singer/rapper.
3.11.2 The public shall be encouraged by the Promoter to vote on which of the top 3 most voted for videos they prefer for the period 8 December 2025 – 14 December 2025, with the voting tallies being hidden from public view.
3.12 The Promoter shall check the votes, with the creator of the most voted for video in terms of this clause being declared the Competition winner. This shall be supervised by an external auditor.
3.13 The Competition winner shall be contacted by the Promoter and informed of their win.
3.14 On 19 December 2025, the winner will be announced on the Promoter’s TikTok page.

3.15 The Competition starts on 1 October 2025 at 00:00 (midnight) South African time and ends on 19 December 2025 at 23.59 South African time.

3.16 All costs incurred by entrants are their own personal responsibility and shall be borne by entrants, including data/internet costs.

Prize(s) and Duration of Competition

3.17 The Competition winner shall be awarded the following:

3.17.1 a David Gresham Records development recording deal (subject to vetting, negotiation and The David Gresham Record Company (Pty) Ltd t/a David Gresham Records terms and conditions).
3.17.2 a three year music publishing deal with Sheer Publishing (Pty) Ltd trading as Downtown Music Publishing (“DMP”) Africa (subject to vetting, negotiation and DMP Africa terms and conditions).
3.17.3 a one month comprehensive PR deal with B Kool Media (subject to vetting, negotiation and B Kool Media terms and conditions).
3.17.4 The Promoter and Sponsors to promote and create content around the Competition winner, including documenting the Competition winner’s experiences up until 19 March 2026.
3.17.5 All Sponsors will be responsible for all the post competition activities and will share these with the Promoter’s team to continue creating content post competition.

4. Prize Winners

4.1 The winner will be contacted by the external organisation/Promoter subsequent to 19 December 2025 and it will be verified that they meet all eligibility requirements for entry and winning of the prize. Should the winner not be contactable within 2 days of attempted contact for the purposes of being informed that they are a winner and verification, then the external organisation/Promoter reserves the right to award the prize to another entrant.

4.2 The decision made as to the Competition winner shall be final.

4.3 There is no alternate prize available should the prize winner not want the awarded prize, nor is the external organisation/Promoter obliged to exchange and/or transfer any prize to another person.

4.4 The Prizes are not transferable, exchangeable for cash, or redeemable for any other goods or services.

4.5 Acceptance of each Prize is subject to the winner entering into separate legally binding agreements with the respective Sponsors.

4.6 Should the winner fail or refuse to sign any of the offered contracts within 14 days of award, the Promoter reserves the right to select an alternate winner.

4.7 Entrants must beware of scam callers & SMS notifications stating that you are a winner. Winners will never be contacted via SMS. Unless pre-arranged with you, Promoter representatives will never come to your office or home to say you’re a winner or to deliver a prize.

4.8 Only entrants to the Competition may win a prize. Therefore, if you receive a telephonic call from a party claiming that you have won the Competition without having entered the Competition, this is not legitimate.

4.9 The Promoter’s representatives will be able to quote you your ID number. If in ANY doubt, ask the caller for their name and the YFM switchboard number and phone the caller back. If in doubt, you can call YFM and speak to Sinead.

4.10 If you are concerned that a bogus caller has contacted you, please store the number of the caller (if you have caller ID) and email it to info@yfm.co.za and prizes@yfm.co.za.

5 Intellectual property
5.1 Entrants retain copyright in their submitted content but grant the Promoter a worldwide, perpetual license to use, reproduce, and distribute submitted materials for promotional purposes related to the Competition and for the Promoter to use their names, images, voices, and performances in promotional content across all media without compensation.

5.2 Entrants warrant that their submission is original and does not infringe on third-party rights.

5.3 Entrants grant the Promoter a worldwide, perpetual license to use, reproduce, and distribute submitted materials for promotional purposes related to future substantively similar Competitions and for the Promoter to use their names, images, voices, and performances in promotional content across all media without compensation for future substantively similar competitions.

6 Changes to Terms and Conditions of Competition

6.1 The Promoter reserves the right at its sole discretion to withdraw and/or substitute any prize at any time for any reason. The Promoter may replace and/or substitute any prize with any products, goods, services and/or cash which it decides is appropriate in the circumstances.

6.2 The Promoter may at any time decide to change, cancel, amend, vary, delete, add to, and/or otherwise alter the terms and conditions of entry, the prizes and/or any other part of the Competition.

7 Personal Information

7.1 All entrants hereby consent to the Promoter processing their personal information for the purpose of this Competition. The personal information which is submitted for the Competition will be held by the Promoter and/or independent external organisation and/or auditors and/or Judges and other parties in order for the fulfilment and operation of the Competition. This information will only be shared with third parties involved with the Competition for the administration of the Competition and/or the supply and delivery of the prizes. The personal details will be held for 36 months (3 years) from date of Competition entry and will then be destroyed and/or deleted.

7.2 Entrants hereby consent to the Promoter and its affiliated Parties direct marketing and contacting them in future for competitions.

7.3 The winner agrees to partake in reasonable media and promotional appearances as required by the Promoter.

8 Force Majeure and Law

8.1 Where for any reason beyond the reasonable control of Promoter the Competition cannot be carried out and/or completed as planned and/or advertised, then the Promoter reserves the right to cancel the Competition at any time and in such event shall not be liable to any person.

8.2 The terms and conditions of this Competition shall be subject to the laws of South Africa.

9 Publicity

9.1 Winners shall potentially have their names and prizes published on the Promoter’s platforms and eMedia Investments’ platforms, including digital platforms. All entrants agree to the Promoter and eMedia Investments using online/social media platforms/on air platforms in order to publicise the Competition and its entrants and winners and their names, photographs and likeness.

9.2 The sharing of a photograph or video online does not signify that an entrant has won a prize for the Competition.

10 Jurisdiction
10.1 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of South Africa.

10.2 The Parties agrees that any legal action or proceedings arising out of or in connection with this Agreement may be brought against it in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Local Division (or any successor to that court), and irrevocably submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of such court.

11 Contact Details of Promoter

11.1 The contact details of Yired (Pty) Ltd are as follows:
11.1.1 Address: 4 Albury Road, Dunkeld West, Johannesburg.
11.1.2 Telephone number: 011 759 6300.
11.1.3 Website: www.yfm.co.za
11.1.4 Email address: info@yfm.co.za