SoundTempest

OurStage, a relatively new website centered around user-submitted and ranked music and video content, is now offering over $25,000 per month in prizes as part of its ongoing contest system. The prizes range from cash and gift cards to one-on-one mentoring sessions with established artists and producers, performance opportunities, music gear, distribution deals, and more.

The website, which is funded by “enthusiasts and angel investors”, invites musicians and filmmakers to create a profile and upload their music and video content for free. However, where OurStage differs from MySpace and iLike is the aforementioned contest system. Visitors to the site can quickly “Judge” contest entries by listening to or viewing two randomly-selected entries in a pair, then picking which they prefer more, and by how much (or selecting that the entries are just as good.)

This system, according to the site staff, prevents “gaming” - where a popular artist can solicit hundreds or thousands of fans to all vote for a song and propel it to the top of the charts. OurStage’s judging, in comparison, is completely randomized; users cannot choose to vote on a specific song. The code behind the system is also designed to balance the amount of ratings and exposure each entry gets, so that all songs or videos have equal exposure.

As the end of each month draws near, the top contestants from each category (such as “Electronic”, “World”, “Rock”) are brought into the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals, where a winner for each is established. Then, the finals commence, and two grand prize winners are chosen from the pool of category winners; one for video, and one for music. On the first day of the next month, the process begins again.

Though OurStage is fairly new, it has already established numerous partnerships, such as with the Just Plain Folks Music Organization, John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Virgin Mobile Festival in Canada, and others.

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I hadn’t heard about OurStage until a few weeks ago, when Brian Austin Whitney (founder of Just Plain Folks) contacted me and asked me to do some research on it, along with twenty-nine other individuals. OurStage had approached JPF about the possibility of becoming community partners, but considering the amount of websites in existence that take advantage of musicians, many of us were initially cautious. However, none of us could dig up anything fishy or sketchy. It was a completely legit site that didn’t charge its users a dime.

Not long after I did my research, I uploaded two songs from my 2007 release Antigravity to the electronic category, and encouraged Jillians Goldin, my girlfriend and frequent collaborator, to put up one or two of her tracks as well. We both entered into the February contest, and while it isn’t over, I think we’ve had an interesting experience thus far.

Before I get into that, let me say that I’ve been a user of Garageband.com for over half a year. GB runs on a somewhat similar system; there’s an ongoing contest, you create a profile and upload your music, then people vote on your songs in a randomized system. Songs that rise to the top of the charts have more visibility, and there are prizes for people that move through multiple rounds of judging. As of now, I have songs from Antigravity at #1 in Trance, #2 in Techno, #11 in Techno, and #29 in Electronic, out of hundreds of entries.

The problem with Garageband’s system is that in order to get a song into the whole judging process, you (the artist) must obtain fifteen “review credits”. You can do this by paying a flat fee, or by reviewing fifteen song pairs and giving detailed ratings to each. Your reviews are then, in turn, evaluated by other users to make sure they are legitimate and accurate, which they should be as the system forces you to listen to at least 90 seconds of each songs. The process is exhausting and many reviews turn out fairly glib in the end. However, there is an incentive to write good reviews; high ranked reviewers can win prizes every month, be they artists or not.

OurStage takes a different approach that in many ways works better. You need only listen to 15 seconds of each song in a review pair, and you don’t have to write a text review or evaluate multiple numeric categories. You simply select which song you like better, and by how much. The fact that the artist does not need to pay money or do the equivalent of thirty reviews simply to have their song entered into the contest is another huge plus.

This brings me back to the experiences of Jill and myself. We’ve been watching our songs move through the charts since the beginning of the month, we’ve judged dozens of songs, and browsed through the site documentation. After all that, our shared view is that it’s a great idea for a site that is more evolutionary than revolutionary, building on the idea of free-entry contests judged in a highly democratic fashion. However, we do share three common criticisms…

1. There are not enough categories to properly sort all of the music actually uploaded. The electronic category has ambient and new age songs next to driving techno instrumentals and Madonna-style pop. While over-classification should be avoided, overly broad genre tags create unbalanced competition.

2. Users regularly upload music to the wrong category and there seems to be little reprimand for this. During my time judging the “World” category, over 50% of the songs I judged were completely misplaced, with absolutely no qualities that could possibly merit the “World” label. This wastes the time of the people judging and is irritating to artists competing against these mislabeled songs.

3. There is no actual incentive to judge besides the enjoyment one may get from doing so. Don’t get me wrong; it’s definitely fun to judge. However, I think there should be some sort of additional motivation, even if it’s just the chance at a prize. I believe this has created a serious lack of proper ratings in several categories. It seems like a song can jump 20 or 30 places in just a single vote, as a result.

My song “Warhead” went from 65 or so to 172 in the span of a few hours. Previously it was as high as 29. Songs should not fluctuate this much in such a short period, especially towards the end of a month. For fluctuations to be minimized, more ratings need to be gathered.

Considering OurStage is fairly new, I can understand that all the kinks have not been entirely worked out. I’ve seen staff posting on the Just Plain Folks forums and responding to user feedback, so they’re certainly willing to refine and improve the way they do things. OurStage is still relatively small compared to sites like Garageband or Soundclick, but I’m hopeful that its thoughtful design philosophy and enthusiastic staff will make it a popular hub for music and a great new way for artists to get exposure (and maybe a little money on the side.)