About
About 0Skips
0Skips is a music video contest for Utah students 13 and up: make a video, get coached, earn support for school. It is a pilot, running its first season in 2027.
What 0Skips is
A student makes a music video, their way. A human coach watches the whole thing and gives notes. The student takes the notes and qualifies. The video is published on the family's own YouTube channel, and the student's contest page opens. Three Content judges and three Music judges score every entry on four categories: the Student PSA, the Success Sequence, listenability and artistic execution, and engagement and creativity. That human Base Score, out of 10.00, is the only thing that qualifies an entry.
Categories: original, cover, and AI-assisted, one per entry. Using AI is allowed and is a category; not disclosing it is the problem.
Who runs 0Skips
0Skips is operated by 0Skips L3C, a Utah L3C and a for-profit entity; contributions are not tax-deductible.
Aaron Larson, M.S. — Executive Director, 0Skips L3C
Write to hello@0skips.org or use the contact form. A person answers; it is not an automated address. Anyone else named on this page will have a defined public role and will have agreed to be listed.
The two ways to enter
- The Free YouTube Entry. Free. One submission, no resubmission. The student publishes on their own channel and sends the private package (the same video file, the lyrics, the 15-second Student PSA as text). One screening decides whether it appears in the contest; a student under the bar can upgrade the same entry.
- The Artist Support Package. A private coach, several tries, and the full contest page. In the pilot a sponsor covers an eligible student's first entry, so it costs the family nothing.
The 2027 season, in dates
- The season opens
- Friday 1 January 2027
- Submissions close
- Friday 30 April 2027, 11:59 PM Mountain
- Finalists revealed
- Saturday 22 May 2027
- The live Finale
- Saturday 5 June 2027, 7:00 PM Mountain
- The next season opens
- Wednesday 1 September 2027
How money works here
- Money can support a student. Money cannot improve a student's chances of winning.
- No chance anywhere in the winner path: no random tiebreaks, no surprise rewards.
- Sponsorship buys advertising on 0Skips-owned surfaces, never inside a student's video.
- Prize money is paid only into an eligible 529 college savings plan.
How students are protected
- Stage names and avatars only. Real names, parent contacts, addresses, college savings statements and gift codes live in a separate vault the public site cannot reach.
- A student opens an account; a parent or guardian unlocks it. Permission to publish is given one video at a time and can be withdrawn.
- No social graph: no connections, no follower lists, no messaging between accounts, no private adult-to-minor channel anywhere.
- Nothing student-made becomes public without a named human's approval, recorded in an append-only log. Student contest pages are not indexed during the pilot.
- Cookieless analytics. No ad tech, no session replay, no cross-site tracking.