There is a newbie on the internet music scene, and its name is OurStage.com. Do we need another one? And what makes it different?

OurStage.com is centred around a competition principle. Artists can win monthly prizes, as decided by the fans.

It works per channel, eg per style of music, and artists can upload music and video.  You have channel winners, and also overall winners.

So, how is it different from every other music website?

Firstly, as Quaxle is for songwriters and artists, let’s look at OurStage.com from an artist perspective.

There are prizes to win. Of course, there are only a few prizes for many artists (if the site turns out to be successful, this could be 100, 000 artists). This is the nature of competitions.

The prizes are really tempting. They include mentor sessions, performances, a Godin guitar and cash prizes.

My main concern is that it reinforces the connection between music and competition. Even though there is some truth in that, especially at the top of the music industry, i’m not sure i like the idea of a website founded entirely on this premise. I very much prefer a site like last.fm, which is about connecting music lovers with more music, and MySpace, which is akin to an online business card for a band.

I do recognise that OurStage.com will help the winners as some  of the prizes will make a big difference to bands and solo artists who win them, i cannot really condone the whole premise of the site turning music into a big competition.

This is from an artist point of view. But what about the users?

 Like many websites designed to attract artists (eg content), it fails to have an unique selling point for users. OK, it might be that they get to choose a winner, and they know that their vote might make a difference for the future of that artist. Sure, it’s nice. But as a music lover, it wouldn’t make me ditch my current favourite music website to join OurStage.com.

Overall, i wish them all the luck in the world as i can see their intentions are good but i will not bother registering with them, neither as an artist nor as a user. Will you?

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