Our discussion about your entries into American Idol's songwriting contest rolls on. For newcomers, we've been splitting comments into new threads every 100 comments or so to keep our server from melting. Beyond that, there's a lot of fun, positive discussion going on between some industry veterans and some newbie songwriters about everything from whether someone's received The Call from Los Angeles to signing up with ASCAP or BMI. Among the highlights in the last thread:

• One commenter has discovered a blogger that's tracking every single American Idol Songwriter entry she can find. If I had a little more time this week, I'd maybe turn this into a wiki. Does anyone want to volunteer?

• Questions about songwriting royalties and song ownership have been covered in previous threads. Feel free to explore the "you may also be interested in..." section of each page to navigate through all of our American Idol discussions.

• There's a very compelling debate about how "religious" music overlaps with "pop" music. For example, how does a song like "Jesus Take the Wheel" become a hit if screeners claim they're not looking for songs with religious overtones?

• And, spinme.com readers are the brightest and most talented audience a writer could wish for. But we knew that already.

Remember, all music criticism is entirely subjective. While some folks like to think that all music fits into a certain set of "rules," every Billboard Top 100 hit got there because of someone's gut reaction to a song. With that said, a request. As you critique each other, try to use the "sandwich" method. Find something good to say about the song before you rant about what's wrong with it. Back that up with what you would love to hear the songwriter do on their next attempt. A few of the comments in the last thread were borderline unconstructive, and I'd prefer to keep this discussion focused on how every one of our songwriters can improve their craft.

Finally, a personal request from me. Our weekly newsletter goes out this afternoon, and I want to make sure you get the benefit of some goodies we're enclosing in there. I am feeling particularly generous this week. Therefore, I'll be enclosing a FREE subscriber-only link to a recording of a class I taught about "mailbox money" -- ways that songwriters can earn money from their craft, especially if they're not performers by nature. I'm going to make that a free download for 72 hours, because you all have put so much energy into our songwriting discussions this week. Sign up today, so I can send that to you!

Track these topics: American+Idol, contest, music+business, songwriter, songwriting