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OurStage is an online showcase for film and music makers with a big difference.
Many sites showing UGC (User Generated Content), such as YouTube have no means of sorting through the thousands of submissions they receive every day. Quality is variable, to say the least, and there is no way for the best content to get the attention it deserves.

OurStage works like a continuous online community talent show. Submissions are divided into two categories music and video. Each of these is then divided into a number of channels, and the range available is impressive.

Music contains Acoustic, Pop, Rock, Hip-Hop, Country/Americana, Jazz, Electronic, Experimental, Hard Rock, World, R + B/Soul, Blues, Metal, Punk and Solo performance.
With video submissions choose from Animation, Comedy, Cutting Edge, Action Sports, Music Video, Short Films, Trailers, Documentaries and Wacky + Weird.

Artists can set up a Fanclub on the site and get banners to put on their MySpace pages.

Each submission then goes through the process of Peer Relative Ranking'. Visitors to the side judge two entries side by side and vote on which is better and by how much.
To keep it fair, judges must watch at least 15 seconds of everything they rate, and don't get to choose what they are judging.

All these results are then collated to produce a ranking for all the entries within each channel, so the cream rises to the top, instead of the kid with the most friends always winning.
The standard is far higher than that of non-rated UCG sites and the variety is impressive there's always something new and interesting coming up.

Every month there's a cash prize of $100 for the top entry in each channel, and each month all the top entries battle for two $5000 dollar prizes.

Winners also receive other prizes designed to kick-start their careers after success on OurStage. These include performance slots at music and film festivals, magazine coverage and Artist Mentor sessions where winners receive one-to one advice from prominent figures in the entertainment industry. Current mentors include performing artist John Legend and John Cameron Mitchell who wrote, directed and starred in the cult movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The site provides lots of clear, detailed information on how to upload entries, how to vote and pretty much anything else you might want to know about OurStage.
Check it out.

Learn more about this author, Daisy Taunton.
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