OurStage Emerges from Beta with Artist Access(TM) to Connect Emerging Artists with Music and Film Veterans

OurStage Emerges from Beta with Artist Access(TM) to Connect Emerging Artists with Music and Film Veterans

John Legend, David Burke, and John Cameron Mitchell to Provide Inaugural Mentoring Sessions; OurStage Winner to Open for G. Love

BOSTON, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- OurStage, the only 100% democratic competition for emerging music and film talent as decided by the fans, has emerged from beta today with the debut of Artist Access, a new program that will provide top-ranked OurStage acts with advice from, and opportunities to perform with, well-known industry veterans. Five-time Grammy winner John Legend will be heading up the inaugural program with a one-on-one mentoring session with one of the top 10 winning artists from OurStage's September Music competition, while John Cameron Mitchell and David Burke will lead mentoring sessions with top-ranking film artists. Alternative hip-hop band G. Love and Special Sauce will be selecting one top-ranked OurStage artist to perform as the opening act at three of their fall concerts.

"As the old major label model is in decline, the Internet is opening up incredible opportunities for emerging artists," said Ben Campbell, CEO of OurStage. "At OurStage, it's up to the fans - and only the fans - to decide who will rise to the top. Once the fans choose the top acts, we support them by arranging major career opportunities such as live performances at festivals like Bonnaroo, Virgin Music, Bumbershoot, Starbucks Music Makers and more. Now we are taking that support to the next level by providing access to the established artists who've been there and know what it takes to break through."

Through Artist Access, top-ranked OurStage acts will win one-on-one meetings and live performance opportunities with successful music and film artists - who will personally choose the final winner from the top 10 ranked acts in their channel of expertise. More than a dozen veteran artists will 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;   -- G. Love (Garrett Dutton) of G. Love and Special Sauce, who for 15 years      have been known worldwide for their signature style of blending current      rap with classic R&B;    For Video & Film:   -- David J. Burke, emmy-nominated Director, Writer, & Producer of dozens      of movies and TV series - such as: Animal, Kidnapped, Law & Order: SVU,      and SeaQuest DSV;   -- John Cameron Mitchell, writer, director and star of Hedwig and the      Angry Inch (2001), for which he received the Best Director and Audience      Awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Directorial Debut by the      National Board of Review and the L.A. 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 providing one-on-one sessions for top-ranked acts, Artist Access will also include advice and tips for all aspiring artists who visit OurStage.com. OurStage's EJs (entertainment jockeys) will be capturing the best advice of popular stars in a series of interviews, which will appear regularly on OurStage at www.ourstage.com/artistaccess. Initial interviews 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 Emerges from Beta  

The launch of Artist Access marks the emergence of OurStage from beta. Since opening in April of this year, the site has consistently doubled its traffic month over month, with over 240,000 unique visitors in August - from 130+ countries. Over this same period, the site's visitors have averaged 20 minutes per month judging and enjoying music and film and have done more than one million judging battles to drive the best artists to the top.

About OurStage, Inc. (www.ourstage.com)

OurStage is the only purely democratic online competition where the fans decide who's the best in emerging music, film and video. The OurStage mission is to help talented artists achieve critical exposure by solving the greatest challenge on the Internet today: sorting quality content from the sea of mediocrity online. OurStage provides a neutral, trusted, game-free platform, in which the true judgment of the fans drives the best content to the top. Through its 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 offers worthy artists real opportunities to actually launch their careers.

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FCMN Contact:

Source: OurStage

CONTACT: Meg O'Leary of InkHouse, +1-978-779-9884, meg@inkhousepr.com,
for OurStage

Web site: http://www.ourstage.com/
http://www.ourstage.com/artistaccess

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Profile: International Entertainment