My experience my first month on Ourstage:

I've been signed up with Ourstage since April but, due to a busy schedule, didn't actually upload anything until this month.

I'm not a performing artist but I do enjoy composing and recording instrumentals so I uploaded a short piece - Prelude (We Three Kings) - and entered it in the instrumental competition. I didn't actually get it entered till July 14th but I figure that's enough time for it to get a fair shake judging wise.

My impressions so far:

1. Due to the sheer number of entries in most categories and the structure of the competition; I believe it would be very difficult (if not impossible) to game this system.

2. The only minor downsides, in my opinion, are A. I doubt there are very many people judging that are not entered in the competition (at least in the early rounds). So, in essence, we have the choir judging the singing contest. B. The 15 second minimum "listen time" allows nauseatingly repetitive, loop based entries to do much better than they would ever do under "real world" circumstances. Many of these entries would be at the bottom of the heap if judges listened long enough to realize that it's just the same catchy loop (probably straight out of Acid), over and over and over and over again.

These, however, are minor (and I believe unavoidable) nits on what is otherwise a very slick setup.

3. I think for the most part, the judging process gets it right. I do believe it's a "give or take" outcome, meaning that your entry generally ends up about where it should, give or take. Over the long run it might place higher or lower but Ourstage seems to do a pretty good job of defining the range. To me that makes Ourstage a very useful tool.

I had some free time last week and, in total, I judged about 270 battles in the instrumental category. There was one song I judged several times that I do believe - based on the competition - should have placed in the Top 20. That was "Labyrinth" by Andrew Aversa (aka zircon). The quality of that piece is outstanding. It has a perfect groove and is one of the few entries that made me want to listen to it all the way to the end.

I also judged Mano's entry (Getting Started Part 1) several times and I'm not at all surprised that it's doing so well. It was the best "by far" in the battles I judged.

My entry ended up at #46. Considering the overall quality of the competition, I think that's probably pretty accurate, give or take.

4. The semi-finals and the finals are probably a little more likely to produce winners who have a lot of Ourstage "friends" voting for them. However, success in the real music world depends just as heavily on relationship building as it does on skill and inspiration. Why should Ourstage be any different?

The important thing is that Ourstage does a good job of winnowing the field and by the semi-finals, the cream has risen to the top.

Conclusion:

Overall, I'm very pleased with Ourstage. I plan to use it as a learning tool. Not only to assess how people react to my music in general but to assess how they react to different variations of the same material. I'm looking forward to next month.


http://www.ourstage.com/profile/philchapman