OurStage.com - Let the Fans Decide

OurStage is a well done community talent contest. Users post videos or songs and the rest of the community votes on them. The top of each channel gets a $100 prize at the end of the month, and the entry with the most votes out of all the channels gets the grand prize of $5,000 each month. Their site makes it practically impossible to cheat, so artists with the most votes really have votes from the same amount of people as votes. At the end of the month, the top 10 in each category go head-to-head in an SMS battle, where voters text in their votes at $.50 a text, but without limitations to the number of votes. The point is to try and gain recognition and a fan base for independent artists that don´t have another way of reaching a broader audience.

“OurStage is the only democratic competition where the fans decide who‘s best in emerging entertainment. That means fans have the real voice - because our patent-pending judging system eliminates cheaters. So artists get a fair shot â€" if you‘re really the best â€" the fans will drive you to the top.”

The site is well done and their voting system seems to be an interesting way to choose the top artists. They have a bunch of partners that will be helping to spread the word of OurStage and help gain coverage for the various artists, which gives users more reason to submit their content.

If there´s such a stress on how fair the voting is, then why at the end of the month can people SMS as many times as they want for artists? Will more people be interested in a certain form of media and that media get the grand prize every month? Will users prefer this space or the other talent competition sites out there?