OurStage Emerges from Beta with Artist Access™ to
Connect Emerging Artists with Music and Film Veterans
JohnLegend, David Burke, and John Cameron Mitchell to Provide Inaugural MentoringSessions; OurStage Winner to Open for G. Love
BOSTON (September5, 2007) – OurStage, the only 100% democratic competition foremerging music and film talent as decided by the fans, has emerged from betatoday with the debut of Artist Access , a new program that will provide top-ranked OurStage acts with advice from, andopportunities to perform with, well-known industry veterans. Five-time Grammywinner John Legend will be heading up the inaugural program with a one-on-onementoring session with one of the top 10 winning artists from OurStage’sSeptember Music competition, while John Cameron Mitchell and David Burke willlead mentoring sessions with top-ranking film artists. Alternative hip-hop band G. Love and Special Sauce will be selecting one top-rankedOurStage artist to perform as the opening act atthree of their fall concerts.
“As the old major labelmodel is in decline, the Internet is opening up incredible opportunities foremerging artists,” said Ben Campbell, CEO of OurStage. “AtOurStage, it’s up to the fans – and only the fans – to decidewho will rise to the top. Once the fans choose the top acts, we support them byarranging major career opportunities such as live performances at festivalslike Bonnaroo, Virgin Music, Bumbershoot, Starbucks Music Makers andmore. Now we are taking that support to the next level by providingaccess to the established artists who’ve been there and know what it takesto break through.”
Through Artist Access , top-ranked OurStage acts will win one-on-onemeetings and live performance opportunities with successful music and filmartists – who will personally choose the final winner from the top 10 ranked acts in their channel of expertise. More than a dozen veteran artistswill participate in the program this fall, including:
For Music
John Legend, music entrepreneur and five-time Grammy-winning R&B musician;
Curt Smith of Tears for Fears who have sold over 20 million albums worldwide throughout their 25-year career;
. Film Critics Society;
Chris Gore, writer, filmmaker, speaker, television host and commentator, who was recently named one of the 25 Most Influential People in Independent Film by Film Festival Today magazine;
Other well known industry experts, including: Matt Dentler, producer of the South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival; Sarah Diamond, director of programming for the Slamdance Film Festival; and Adam Roffman, IFFBoston’s Film Director.
In addition to providingone-on-one sessions for top-ranked acts, ArtistAccess will also include advice and tips for all aspiring artistswho visit OurStage.com. OurStage’s EJs (entertainment jockeys) will becapturing the best advice of popular stars in a series of interviews, whichwill appear regularly on OurStage at www.ourstage.com/artistaccess. Initialinterviews already posted include:
§ Blonde Redhead
§ Crystal Method
§ Kaki King
§ Lupe Fiasco
§ Plain White Ts
§ Rhyme Fest
§ Shout Out Out Out Out
§ Tapes N Tapes
OurStage Emergesfrom Beta
The launch of Artist Access marks the emergence ofOurStage from beta. Since opening in April of this year, the site hasconsistently doubled its traffic month over month, with over 240,000 uniquevisitors in August – from 130+ countries. Over this same period, thesite’s visitors have averaged 20 minutes per month judging and enjoyingmusic and film and have done more than one million judging battles to drive thebest artists to the top.
About OurStage, Inc. (www.ourstage.com)
OurStage is the only purelydemocratic online competition where the fans decide who’s the best inemerging music, film and video. The OurStage mission is to help talentedartists achieve critical exposure by solving the greatest challenge on theInternet today: sorting quality content from the sea of mediocrityonline. OurStage provides a neutral, trusted, game-free platform, inwhich the true judgment of the fans drives the best content to the top. Throughits wealth of partner programs, including Bonnaroo, Virgin Festival, Bumbershoot, Paste, CMJ, PLUG Awards, Pops on the Edge Fest, Slamdance, Relix, Gen Art, Noise Pop, Videomaker, IFFBoston, and many others, OurStage offersworthy artists real opportunities to actually launch their careers.
OurStage, which is sort of like a "hot or not" for music that allows fans to vote on songs, videos, and other media, with the winners receiving cash prizes and show bookings, has added another arm to its next-generation record label: a mentoring program in which three music industry veterans will offer advice to bands who upload their music and videos to the site.
