OurStage.com is a web and mobile-based music community offering free music streaming, discovery, and editorial content. It is owned and operated by OurStage Inc., headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Founded in 2007, OurStage.com holds monthly sponsored competitions for artists to compete, win prizes, and publicize themselves. OurStage.com's proprietary judging software allows its users to listen, judge and rank music artists. The site was originally developed as a crowdsourced way to hear new music and raise it up through the charts.
Features
OurStage allows streaming musicfor free to users through its web site or an iPhone app, with 40 styles of music including rock, pop, urban, and country music. Local, regional, and national competitions award cash prizes or music industry opportunities to winners chosen through fan judging or by industry experts. Competitions have included Guitar Center's Your Next Record with Keith Urban, Drake's Thank Me Later Competition, the Lilith Local Talent Search as part of Lilith Fair 2010, John Mayer's Side Stage Warfare Competition, New Era's Fly Your Own Flag DJ Competition, Hot Chelle Rae's Opening Act Competition, and Kid Rock's Opening Act Competition. On October 25, 2011, OurStage launched The OurStage Panel, an original web series consisting of individual episodes in which music industry executives discuss and evaluate top-ranked Premium OurStage Artists. Season one panelists were Bruce Tyler, Former Executive Vice President of Sony Music, Jason Ienner, manager of Hot Chelle Rae, Lee Dannay, Vice President of A&R for Warner/Chappell Music, and Sharon Dastur, Program Director of Z100, New York, NY. In the season one finale, finalists performed live and Matt Bailie won $5,000, an industry mentorship, and a professionally produced video press kit. The season one finale featured a guest performance by Hot Chelle Rae, and guest panelist Steve Lillywhite, record producer for U2 and Dave Matthews Band. In 2012, OurStage teamed up with ESPN to launch the "Who's Next?" Competition. 12 artists were selected to participate in the competition, each being featured on a live college basketball broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 for a team from their home state. Over several weeks of voting, fans chose Kentucky native Dave Moisan as the winner. On February 16, 2012, OurStage launched the second season of "The OurStage Panel". Tyler, Dannay and Dastur returned as panelists, alongside Scott Igoe of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and multi-platinum recording artist Gavin DeGraw. DeGraw appeared as a guest panelist for all four episodes in the season. Season 2 artists are competing for a chance to perform at OurStage's official party at SXSW. On March 6, 2012, OurStage launched "OurStage @ Warped," giving unsigned artists a chance to perform on the OurStage.com Stage at Warped Tour. In addition to having 22 regional winners for each stop of the tour, OurStage brought national winner Larry g on all 22 dates, tour bus included. On May 4, 2012, OurStage and Real Hip-Hop Network launched the "Rise" Competition, offering unsigned hip-hop and rap artists the chance to open for Drake on 20 dates of the Club Paradise Tour. Connecticut-based rapper Jitta On The Track was selected as the winner, his performances garnering attention from MTV News, AllHipHop.com and more. While on tour, Jitta signed a deal with David Sonenberg's DAS Communications management firm. In June 2012, OurStage teamed up with Akoo and Secret Deodorant to host the first ever Band Against Bullying live concert event, featuring performances by YouTube sensations Megan and Liz, Hot Chelle Rae, Nigel Pilkington, Dan Russell, Emma Tate and Bean. OurStage launched the "Band Against Bullying" Competition to find an artist to add to the lineup, a spot that was awarded to former American Idol contestant Tim Halperin. The concert was held on July 20, 2012, at the B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square, New York City. In July 2012, OurStage launched Songs of The Revolution, a series of exclusive recording sessions with buzz-worthy acts touring in the Boston area. OurStage offers both audio and video downloads of the sessions for free. Featured SOTR artists so far include The Dear Hunter, Mieka Pauley, O'Brother and Will Dailey. In September 2012, OurStage announced a new partnership with Jimmy Kimmel Live. Artists from around the U.S. are now able to compete on OurStage.com for an opportunity to be Jimmy Kimmel’s featured musical guest, performing on the same stage that has seen superstars like Adele, Kanye West, Gwen Stefani, Dave Matthews, Mukesh Officials, and more. On September 25, OurStage announced that OurStage Panel Season 2 winners Eclectic Approach would be the first OurStage artist to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Partners
OurStage past and present partners and sponsors include Intel and Cakewalk, AOL, CMJ Network, MTV, Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más, and Clear Channel.
