My preference in these things is to Keep It Simple, so let's avoid a system where the points change, graduate, or even go beyond the simple 1 point for a win, 1/2 for a tie, 0 for a loss.

Think it's worthwhile summarizing the decisions on the voting order, pairing selection, time limits, etc. before heading into Friday as I can easily see varying interpretations resulting in disappointment, anger when an unforeseen change to perceived structure throws one strategy completely out the window.

Here's my understanding of the way this is going to work, based on my reading of the last few posts:

1) Names of each player are written on pieces of paper and placed in a hat. Matchups are randomly selected by draw and order of spins then occurs in the order of the draw. For an example, let's assume the names are chosen as follows: Mike, Derek, Brian, Kyle, Marc, Stuart. Mike then plays a song from one of his decades, followed by Derek.
2) We vote on which of the two songs we like better, a vote is recorded and we move onto the next matchup, Brian v. Kyle, then Marc v. Stu.
3) Each player has a set of six players names on a piece of paper; to vote, the name selected is placed into a hat, the votes are tallied and we move onto the matchup.
4) A giant board records point totals after each round

Suggestions for additional rules:

-Year requirement: With ten rounds, each player will be playing 10 songs total. Do we want to require that they play 5 songs from each year? So if I've played all my 1967 tracks by round 6, I have to then play 1992 songs the rest of the way through? Think this would be easy to keep track of. If we don't want to limit someone to playing both years equally, a requirement that each player play at least 4 songs from a decade seems like a reasonable compromise.
-Song Length: You may exceed the 5 minute length no more than twice in the contest. All songs will be cut off after 8 minutes. Players have the option of fast forwarding in order to highlight a section of the long song if they wish.
-Tie-breaker at the end of the rounds: If two or more players are tied in points at the end of 10 rounds, a sudden death final round occurs where each surviving player plays one song (chosen by a random selection) and we vote on the best played. The tied players do not get a vote in this round (that way, if an odd number are tied, we have a chance of quickly determining a winner).

Not sure if this is what you had in mind. Welcome your clarifications.