The last time I announced “sweeping” changes to the OurStage Channels was back in February. The time has come to change some more. That’s a good thing in fact. It means we have more artists than ever using OurStage to strengthen relationships with current Fans, make completely new Fans and advance their careers with cash, prizes and amazing performance opportunities. So enough gravy, let’s talk turkey.

New Channels
The following are new Channels at your disposal come July 1st (assuming your art fits the Channel description):

Bluegrass/Roots
Bluegrass is typically based around acoustic stringed instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, and upright bass, with or without vocals where each instrument takes a turn playing the melody and improvising around it. Roots music is for Country/Folk/Americana music with an “old timey” arrangement and vocal performance feel.

Comedy Comedy is for parody, farce or statement songs where the intent is more to amuse than to showcase a particular music style. If it isn’t funny, it won’t stay in the channel for long.

Techno/Ambient Techno/Ambient is for electronic music that tends to avoid “real sounding” tones for more electronic ones. Ambient tracks will often be mellow and laid back. Techo may cross over into more of a pop sound, but will retain the pure electronic consistency throughout.

Spoken Word Spoken Word is a form of literary art or artistic performance in which lyrics, poetry, or stories are spoken rather than sung. Spoken word is often done with a musical background, but emphasis is kept on the speaker. This is a new genre for us, a bit of an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.

Gothic/Industrial Gothic/Industrial is for compositions with a dark theme. Gothic songs tend to feature heavily processed guitar sounds with emphasis on angular guitar melodic lines instead of thick chords. Industrial music could be considered a more abrasive and aggressive cousin of Gothic and features a fusion of rock and electronic styles.

Ska/Psychobilly added to the Punk Rock Channel
Ska pulls from reggae, punk rock and rockstready styles and tends to feature a predominate walking baseline and accented guitar or piano rhythms. Ska and punk are grouped together in one channel because they’re closely related styles, though the tones and rhythms and song structures vary substantially. Psychobilly is a genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres.

Rockabilly added to the Southern Rock/Blues Rock Channel
Rockabilly includes Western Swing, boogie woogie, and Jump blues. Although there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the Southern USA.

Grindcore added to the Death Metal Channel
Grindcore draws inspiration from the most abrasive popular music genres available— noise, death metal, early industrial music and the faster varieties of punk rock (D-beat, crust, thrashcore).

NEW VIDEO GENRE CHANNELS FOR YOU STARTING IN JULY

Live Performance
Upload your best live musical performances in this channel. It’s great for your EPK, too, because venues looking to book top talent want to see how your act translates live.

Rock Music Video
For music videos where the songs fit our Alternative Rock, Rock, Indie Rock, Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Punk Rock/Ska/Psychobilly, Jam Bands, Southern Rock/Blues Rock/Rockabilly and Funk/Groove and Soul Rock Channels.

Pop Music Video
For music videos where the songs fit our Pop, Contemporary/Soft Rock, and R&B channels

Electronic Music Video
For music videos where the songs fit our Techno/Ambient, Electronic/Electro-Pop, Club/Dance channels

Hard Rock Music Video
For music videos where the songs fit our Hard Rock, Metal, Death Metal/Grindcore, Hardcore Rock, Gothic/Industrial channels

Whew! There you have it. We don’t take these changes lightly, so we only make them when there is a pressing need to address. These are not necessarily the only changes to be made: We constantly evaluate and review our Channels to ensure they’re meeting Fan and Artist demand.

So what do you think of the changes? Chances are you have an opinion and I want to know about it. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Daniel