OurStage News
November 11, 2009: Lilith 2010 has partnered with OurStage.com to run the “Lilith Local Talent Search,” dedicated to finding “the next best emerging female musicians across North America.”...“We are really excited to be partnering with OurStage.com,” Lilith co-founder Terry McBride said. “It was extremely important to us to choose a partner that was artist friendly, had a strong platform for discovering regional talent, and had the ability to enable the fans to sort through the best music in a scalable and fair manner. Together, we provide an exceptional platform for discovering and promoting the best emerging female artists.”
For more information visit: www.pollstar.com
August 26, 2009: The leading music discovery destination providing professional opportunities for top-ranked emerging artists, today announced an ongoing partnership to create engaging experiences for up-and-coming musicians and their fans via the OurStage platform. To kick off the partnership, musicians in top markets across the U.S. have been participating in OurStage.com-hosted efforts this summer, and will receive significant exposure through the mtvU Six Flags VMA Tour and MTV's flagship music event, the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
For more information visit: www.reuters.com
July 12, 2009: Since launching publicly back in April 2007 the company has been steadily attracting users to join its service, which enables people to discover new independent artists, rank and share music with others and communicate directly with upcoming singer/songwriters and bands. Thanks to viral growth in combination with dozens of partnerships with music festivals, radio networks and media companies like AOL/WinAmp, OurStage is currently nearing 1 million registered users. The company has also managed to sway 95,000 artists into joining the platform, and in combination with the strong user base they currently receive about 3 million unique visitors on the site every month.
For more information visit: www.techcrunch.com
May 12, 2009: OurStage calls itself "the largest independent music Web site on the Internet" and carries the work of more than 80,000 independent musicians... As a music media startup company that began in late 2006 and went live with its Internet content the following March, OurStage also understands the growing pains of being a startup -- and the necessity of deploying storage architectures that are capable of supporting its growing business.
For more information visit: www.networkcomputing.com
April 29, 2009: Some highlights from a panel discussion on online music marketing: Get a website ("the central point for all marketing activities should be the artist's website"); direct marketing ("both FanBridge and ReverbNation offer an impressive set of direct marketing tools that can help artists communicate directly with fans"); and services for getting live shows ("there are several companies now providing electronic press kits for artists including OurStage, ReverbNation and Sonicbids.
For more information visit: www.billboard.biz
April 20, 2009: Rainn Wilson Uses Twitter to Support Indie Artist: As our Music Appreciation series shows us, celebrities are certain to voice their opinions on music. Mieka Pauley, a singer-songwriter who's been compared to the likes of Cat Power, Neko Case and Patty Griffin, is one of the latest up- and-coming artists to boast a famous fan: 'The Office' actor, Rainn Wilson. The catch? Pauley had no idea until OurStage pointed it out. Pauley realized that Wilson was following her on Twitter when OurStage blogged about it. Complete with an "OMG" and a "wooooo," Pauley commented on the article and said, "I found this out from you guys!"
For more information visit: www.spinner.com
March 6, 2009: John Legend fans, those both musically inclined and otherwise, now have an opportunity to meet the R&B icon thanks to OurStage.com's "Be Legendary" contest. Contestants have been invited to cover Legend's new single, "Everybody Knows" and submit their creation to the Radio One contest channel -- no need for those without instrument skills to worry, a capella versions work too! The creator of the winning entry will get a free trip for two to see John Legend in concert, and may even get to perform their rendition onstage with the crooner himself.
For more information visit: www.theboombox.com
February 16, 2009: The OurStage Radio iPhone app, specifically focused on fresh talent and songs, pairs nicely with the online discovery engine and is simply the best way to find and enjoy new music. If top 40 music is your thing, then the OurStage app isn’t for you, but if you’re in search of independent artists across all musical genres, you’ve come to the right place.
For more information visit: www.mashable.com
January 28, 2009: The second annual ACC Superstar competition, which allows aspiring Country music artists to submit their original material, ran from September through November 2008. The competition was hosted online by music discovery specialists OurStage (whose partners include AOL Music, Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot and CMJ). This year’s contest drew more than 1,100 artists who competed in 150,000 judging battles with 400,000 unique online visitors voting for their favorite bands.
For more information visit: www.citadelmediametworks.com
November 13, 2008: This flow-chart is attempt to create the framework of a basic social media strategy for a band. The chart shows the basic tools of a social media strategy and it illustrates the primary movement of fans within these tools.
For more information visit: Hit Singularity
November 13, 2008: OurStage, a music discovery destination providing professional opportunities for up- and- coming talent, and Grammy Award-winning artist T-Pain today announced they will join forces to discover the next hip-hop or R&B star. Artists can submit their music at http://www.ourstage.com/go/tpain beginning today for a chance to record a single with T-Pain that will be distributed through his online label, Nappy Boy Digital.
For more information visit: www.urbanmecca.net
September 9, 2008: OurStage Launches New Social Tools to Connect Artists, Fans and Industry Professionals: We realize the fundamental component of our model is to bring artists and fans together," said Ben Campbell, founder and CEO of OurStage. "With these new social utilities, we are enhancing the music discovery experience and providing fans and artists alike with an unmatched interactive approach to stay connected. Though other services offer fan/artist interaction, OurStage takes it even further by converting the feedback received to help market and promote emerging talent.
For more information visit: www.reuters.com
September 2008: Despite the murky economy and the much ballyhooed credit crunch, some investors are seeking opportunities outside the traditional VC comfort zone [...] OurStage Inc [...] snagged Series A funding topping $17 million from Signature Capital, a firm that backs unique companies with high potential. Thanks to that financing, the 2006 startup was able to make significant engineering investments and develop a marketing plan, which has led to a partnership with AOL.
For more information visit: www.entrepreneur.com
August 17, 2008: According to Ben Campbell, founder and chief executive officer of OurStage.com, a Web site that allows independent musicians and filmmakers to upload songs and films, major record labels have not outlived their usefulness. "It takes huge sums of money to make a star," he says. And right now, according to Campbell, only the majors have the economic wherewithal to do that, despite the growth of viral videos, internet Web sites such as MySpace and YouTube, and a burgeoning number of independent distributors of music.
For more information visit: www.pittsburghlive.com
July 14, 2008: WeMix isn't the only music site using crowd sourcing. Another is OurStage, a Boston-based service that launched last September and now hosts 43,000 acts and 170,000 tastemaker participants. This week, OurStage announced that Live Nation, the nation's largest concert promoter, has agreed to use some of its best unknowns to open 300 of its events.
For more information visit: www.money.cnn.com
July 9, 2008: OurStage launched last year as an online network where musicians could meet each other, become part of a community, and essentially use the Web as an online talent show. In a natural next step to its artists’ network, OurStage has launched a marketplace that matches talent with venues. Musicians can submit their electronic press kits and become part of the searchable database that venues can tap into in order to find musicians to play gigs.
For more information visit: www.mashable.com
July 9, 2008: The Web site’s new Marketplace tool allows bands to sign up for a free electronic press kit, which can be viewed by talent buyers across the country. Concert bookers can also listen to music the artist has uploaded to OurStage, which is ranked by fans who use the site. To help push the new online tool, OurStage has teamed up with Live Nation, which has reserved 300 performance slots for the site’s top-ranked artists.
For more information visit: www.billboard.biz
July 1 , 2008: I’ve heard that one reason the labels like to use OurStage rather than MySpace to find new talent is that unlike MySpace, OurStage’s voting system cannot be gamed by software or web applications, because of the way its contests are structured. Not only does OurStage present bands randomly, so that you can’t point an automated voting mechanism at it or vote on your friends’ bands over and over, because voting on that site involves working your way through a lot of other entries on a random basis. The site also looks at the behavior of the voters and discounts votes from members whose traffic patterns indicate that they are just blazing through the site looking for the same bands to vote for.
For more information visit: www.wired.com
April 25, 2008: Radio is great because it moves a lot of listeners at once. The Internet is great because it's so engaging and involving. When you link the two, you often create magic. And sometimes you also create a revenue opportunity. Here's one such example with a site called OurStage, which enables music artists from around the country (or around your neighborhood) to compete and be judged by listeners in a scam-proof setting.
For more information visit: www.hear2.com