Author: "KB@OS"

‘N Sync. Britney Spears. The Jonas Brothers. Justin Timberlake.  All chart-topping, international stars. Now, you could be next in line to be crowned pop music’s darling. Here’s how:

Music Manager Johnny Wright is teaming up with AOL Teen’s Cambio, the online entertainment platform “bringing you from fan to friend”, to launch the “On The Spot” talent search. Wright is looking for vocalists to video tape their performance of one of ten predetermined audition songs and upload it for a shot at joining the super group he wants to assemble.

For more details on eligibility, lyrics to the audition songs as well as information on how members of OurStage.com can automatically be entered for the chance to win a free iPad, go HERE.

Deadline for entry of Friday, January 28, 2011.

In 2010 hundreds of thousands of artists entered our monthly competitions, and millions of music lovers ranked their favorite tracks, positioning the Top 100 songs across thirty or more music charts every month. As a proud connoisseur of independent music, I’ve always made it a point to turn my family and friends on to new talents that “I” discover. With a talent pool as rich as the OurStage music charts, there is a never ending reservoir to tap into.

The “Lilith Local Talent Search” brought droves of female artists, “Your Next Record with Keith Urban” brought the country, Drake’s “Thank Me Later” Competition represented hip hop and promotions with Bon Jovi, John Mayer, Train and the Goo Goo Dolls rallied legions of pop and rock artists. While there were many winners who earned career-enhancing opportunities, editorial coverage and cash money, the front-runners only scratched the surface of artists whose talent need to be heard.

Press “Play” to hear songs that have been in heavy rotation throughout 2010 then continue reading to find out why these artists made this list.

-KB

Editor at Large and Director of Community & Content for OurStage.com

In 2007, OurStage.com launched with the dream of helping the most promising independent artists illuminate their music and, hopefully, further their careers. To this end, we began to give away a monthly prize of $5,000 to the Number 1 ranked artist, but soon the artist community indicated they valued career-enhancing opportunities over a payout. In response, we worked to bring OurStage artists the chance to record singles with the likes of Keith Urban and T-Pain as well as the chance to open for national acts such as Bon Jovi and John Mayer. Each month we continue to provide artists with more opportunities to further their music careers. Now, what about the cash?

Since OurStage was able to make good on the request to offer more opportunities we thought it was time to address another long-standing artist request: distributing the 5k prize pot amongst the Number 1 artists in pop, rock, country, urban and specialty. Next month, the artists competing in these main music genres, and their respective sub-genres, will each have a chance to win 1k. This opportunity engages all artists in our community, not just the ones who perform songs in the most popular genres of music.

Beginning December 1^st, the following genres will be eligible to win:

We will also continue to award 1K for the Best Video (country, hard rock, hip hop, pop and rock videos are eligible) as well as 1K for the Best Live Performance Video (open to all genres of music). See our FAQS for more information on our monthly prizes, eligible genres and our competition-judging season.

On April 2nd superstars Bon Jovi announced their search for local bands to share the stage with them on select US and Canada dates of The Circle Tour. As if this isn’t already the stuff that dreams are made of, the band sweetened the deal by adding extra special guest, Kid Rock, on the bill. Check out this list of dates and locations that will feature emerging talent and special guests:

May 19    Hershey, PA: Hersheypark Stadium (Special Guest Fuel)

May 26    East Rutherford, NJ: New Meadowlands Stadium (Special Guest Train)

May 27   East Rutherford, NJ: New Meadowlands Stadium (Special Guest Gavin DeGraw)

May 29   East Rutherford, NJ: New Meadowlands Stadium (Special Guest OneRepublic)

July 9     East Rutherford, NJ: New Meadowlands Stadium (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 15    Edmonton, AB: Commonwealth Stadium (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 17    Winnipeg, MB: Canad Inns Stadium (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 20   Toronto, ON: Rogers Centre (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 21    Toronto, ON: Rogers Centre (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 24    Foxboro, MA: Gillette Stadium (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 28    Regina, SK: Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 30    Chicago, IL: Soldier Field (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

July 31    Chicago, IL: Soldier Field (Very Special Guest Kid Rock)

Local rock, pop and country artists are invited to upload their best original song to be considered for the coveted 20 minute opening sets on The Circle Tour. Bon Jovi will handpick winners from the Top 30 highest-ranked artists on OurStage.

Welcome to the fifth video blog installment of Ask Marcus: the place where artists from any genre can ask Marcus Johnson, a Billboard charting jazz pianist, professor at Georgetown University and founder of Three Keys Music, questions about the music business.

Are you an artist with a question? Ask Marcus HERE. You could end up in his next video blog!

If you talk to most aspiring MCs they’ll tell you that their biggest musical challenge is getting access to new beats. Beat Kangz‘s revolutionary beat-making machine, the Beat Thang, is the solution that many have been waiting for. But hearing is believing. Hit maker Rockwilder has worked with Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Lil’ Kim, Destiny’s Child, Beenie Man along with other legendary artists and is now rocking team Beat Thang. He created a video blog to demo this new production solution and talked about the elements that go into making a hit single. Check it out!

Enter the “Beat Kangz Independent Artist Challenge” for your chance to win one of these bad boys.

Welcome to the third video blog installment of Ask Marcus: the place where artists from any genre can ask Marcus Johnson, a Billboard charting jazz pianist, professor at Georgetown University and founder of Three Keys Music, questions about the music business.

Are you an artist with a question? Ask Marcus HERE. You could end up in his next video blog!

Tonight- Friday, January 22- OurStage.com will join major television networks, popular online destinations, mobile carriers and terrestrial radio stations in the global benefit for earthquake relief in Haiti. Starting at 8 p.m. ET “Hope For Haiti Now” will stream live on OurStage, courtesy of a live feed provided by MTV Networks.

Newly added performers Beyoncé in London, Madonna in New York City, and Haitian artist Emeline Michel in Los Angeles will join the previously announced lineup: Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, and Sting in New York City; Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z, and Rihanna in London.

In addition to musical performances, Wyclef Jean in New York City, George Clooney in Los Angeles, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper reporting from Haiti, “Hope for Haiti Now” will feature President Bill Clinton, Ben Stiller, Brad Pitt, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jon Stewart, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Will Smith with Muhammad Ali, and more than one hundred of the biggest names in film, television, and music.

A women and her injured baby are seen at a makeshift field hospital

“Hope for Haiti Now” will begin accepting donations at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT on Friday, January 22 via the following methods:

• Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org
• Phone: 877-99-HAITI
• Text: Text “GIVE” to 50555
• Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017

Music performances from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes® Store.  Beginning on Friday, iTunes customers will be able to exclusively pre-order both the “Hope for Haiti Now” full performance album ($7.99) and the full two-hour video telecast ($1.99).   Pre-orders will be delivered in the days following the telethon.  Individual audio performances will also be available for purchase and download for $.99 cents each in the days following the telethon.  Apple, the record labels and the artists will donate their share of the proceeds to Haiti relief funds managed by “Hope for Haiti Now” charities.

“Hope for Haiti Now,” will benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation, and the newly formed Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation.  Proceeds from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be split among each organization’s individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief.  With the exception of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, each partner organization was selected for its history of operation and collaboration within the NGO community in Haiti.

Calculating my travel expenses for tax preparation, while rummaging through mounds of receipts from the countless days on the road, I find myself lost in the sonic memory of 2009. Listening to fresh mixes in mid-sized white rental cars, clothes drenched in the odors of bar band bacchanalia, tour buses idling outside broken down theaters, green room amenities for dinner, late night recording sessions in instrument strewn dens of iniquity, such is the life of an Editor-at-Large. What makes it easy to keep tacking on the miles is, of course, the music — hundreds and hundreds of hours of music. But how much of it will live into the next year and beyond?

Joni Mitchell says “songs are like tattoos,” but is today’s plethora of songs nothing more then a bunch of iron-ons? No decade seemed to have swept by so fast yet be filled with such a wide spectrum of advances that immediately integrated into day to day lives, especially when it came to how we discovered, aggregated and consumed music. With the decentralization of the business, i.e. labels, terrestrial radio, and print publications all on the fast track to irrelevance mixed and the virtual tidal wave of online purveyors it can seem unbelievably daunting to enter the media fracas to find music that fits us.

Yet, we must remember through all the noise, like the haunting violin in Shelly’s Frankenstein, music has the power to soothe the savage beast raging inside us. It should be easy to do now that our entire music collections, which were once proudly displayed in our home, fit into the palm of our hand. This is an amazing technological accomplishment; now we have access to every type of music — anywhere, anytime.

However, do we really LISTEN to our music today? I am not talking about during a commute, riding the stationary bike or in a favorite watering hole. I am talking about sitting back in your favorite chair, putting on a record or CD, reading the liner notes, checking out the artwork, learning the lyrics, etc. In other words, how much time do we actually spend “communing” with our music? We take coffee breaks, smoke breaks, workout breaks, happy hour breaks, bathroom breaks, but where is the daily music break?

So, there it is, my New Year’s resolution; an hour of music a day. I know it sounds like a lot when the five minutes in the shower seems like the only “free time” by today’s clock, but don’t consider it merely a luxury. Music is good for you. It makes you a better person. Our lives are only enhanced with an ongoing soundtrack. So find some music that can stand the test of time and support it by giving it the attention it deserves. Open your ears and press play; it’s a whole new decade and time waits for no one.

-Jay Sweet