Oddway named OurStage winner

OurStage, the only 100% democratic competition for emerging music and film talent as decided by the fans, is pleased to announce the first grand prize winner in its monthly artist competitions. Boston-based Oddway, with their hypnotic reggae/rock flavored pop tune "Letter", was awarded the first ever monthly grand prize of $5,000.
OurStage lets music and film artists enter their work in its monthly competitions. The site then empowers its growing fan community to view and judge entries in a compelling, addictive way that cannot be gamed, skewed or rigged.
"We are stoked about winning."
The rock quintet - Ryan Ordway, Josh Amara, Mat Maier, Jeff Armstrong and female vocalist Petrina Foley - worked with producer Scott McLaughlin to independently produce and release their first album, "Away from the Everyday" in January 2007.
"Thanks to OurStage and the fans who voted for us, we'll be able to eat and get gas on our US tour!", says the excited band.
In addition to the $5,000 grand prize, OurStage has also arranged to have Oddway spotlighted in the upcoming CMJ New Music Report, and to release a track of one of their top songs in the CMJ Monthly Music CD sampler. But the winning didn't stop there-MUSIC winners: Ten other notable bands from the OurStage March competition will receive recognition in the April 2007 issue of Paste Magazine, one of the fastest growing independently published entertainment magazines in the country, recently named "Magazine of the Year" at the 2006 PLUG Independent Music awards.
The winning bands stretch across all genres of music and include names such as American Babies, Javelin, Blake Guthrie, Massive Sigh, Antiproduct and Oneside. Six more bands from the OurStage March competition will be featured in coveted spots at the Verge Music Conference. Considered the ultimate showcase for the "next big thing" in college music, Verge simultaneously showcases more than 100 rising stars at the best club venues in Boston. Representing OurStage are The Shapes, The Go Station, American Babies, Surn Majere, Leroy Justice, and Chris Pureka. In addition, these bands will receive coverage in the NEMO Omen Spotlight covering emerging talents.Film WinnersA Star Is Born: "Xero-The Story of X"
Not to be outdone by their musical counterparts, the Video competition saw its own version of March madness in nine categories: Animation, Cutting Edge, Action Sports, Music Video, Short Films, Music Comedy, and General Comedy.
One animated feature, "Xero-The Story of X" walked away with the top prize in multiple categories. Created by C. Palmer Stinson of TimeFissure Studios, Xero is the story of a small sewn figure named X who quickly discovers his existence is not all it's cracked up to be.
"Thanks to their exposure on OurStage, Xero" is currently featured on FilmThreat.com and will be reviewed by the DV Show podcast which reaches an audience of 225,000 people later on this month.
A host of other prizes are also being awarded to top video submissions across all channels including: automatic entry for top video entries into Videomaker Magazine's 2007 video contest, full membership to Shooting People, a feature spotlight in GenArt newsletter, passes to the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Top 5 text-vote video winners also receive the Point and Shoot digital video camera from Pure Digital Inc, dubbed as "The next thing in home video" by the WSJ To hear or view all the winning submissions from the OurStage inaugural competition, or to watch band and filmmaker interviews with the OurStage "EJ"s, visit www.ourstage.com/winners.
About OurStage, Inc.OurStage is the only purely democratic online competition where the fans decide who's the best in emerging music, film and video. Our mission is to help artists achieve critical exposure by solving the greatest challenge on the Internet today: sorting quality content from the sea of mediocrity. We provide a neutral, trusted, game-free platform, in which the true judgment of the fans drives the best content to the top. Through our wealth of partner programs, including Paste, CMJ, PLUG Awards, Slamdnace, Relix, Gen Art, and Noise Pop, OurStage offers winning artists real opportunities to actually launch their careers."OurStage is addictive - has the feel of something that can blow up" acts as a collaborative A&R department for indie musicians, effectively pushing the artists who deserve it up the long tail."
Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired.com