When the smoke cleared, Monet Monico emerged victorious in the Spring 2009 FameCast Finals! She is the proud new owner of $20,000 cash and the title of FameCast Fenom.

Check out her winning video "Wait For Me" and a special thank you video on her Backstage.

CONDITIONS out of Richmond, Virginia, won the 2009 Ernie Ball Rockstar Taste of Chaos Battle of the Bands Grand Prize!

The band has earned a weeks worth of dates on the Ernie Ball Stage on this Summer's warped tour along with a custom Hurley apparel pacakge, and a years supply of Rockstar Energy Drink.

Check out more about the band on their profile.

How has Biggie inspired you?  Submit your video, audio, graphic or written tribute to hip hop legend Biggie Smalls at www.notorioustribute.com and compete for a chance to Live B-I-G in N-Y-C.  One winner will receive an all expense paid trip to New York City.  Fans can also enter to win a copy of Notorious, out now on DVD.  For more information check out www.notorioustribute.com.

FameCast Rock Artists, The Midway State, are up for 2 Juno Awards (Candian Music Awards). They are nominated for Pop Album of the Year for their latest album, "Holes". And singer Nathan Ferraro, is nominated for Songwriter of the Year for his work on such tracks as "Never Again", "Change For You", and "Unaware".

Check out the tracks for "Unaware" and "Change For You" and the video for "Never Again" on their BackStage.

Congratulations to Kingsfall! The rockers from Dallas won the December Rock Stage, and came back this month to take on some stiff competition in the Winter Finals. It was a close one, but they came out on top with the title of Winter 2009 FameCast Fenom and $20,000!

Check out Kingsfalls's winning video, great audios, and tour dates on their profile page.

Make Rock History winners The Last Vegas are officially on the road with Mötley Crüe. Make sure to check out their Tour Blog, Video updates, and everything else you need to know about The Last Vegas on their profile. You can get tour dates from MakeRockHistory.com. Make sure to catch the show when they swing through your town!

Check out who made the Winter Finals Top 10! Don't forget to vote daily. YOU decide who makes the Top 5 to compete for $20,000!

FameCast Fenom Suzanna Choffel (Pop, Dec. 2007) has achieved a huge coup in the highly competitive Austin music scene - a cover story and four-page feature in this week's Austin Chronicle.  Writer Margaret Moser points to Suzanna's leadership of the "now generation of Austin songwriters," citing her FameCast win as an example of her successful DIY tactics.  This is a great trend story and learning opportunity for all FameCast artists. Check it out here!

The Last Vegas's Guitar Center On-Stage victory has already taken them on a wild ride, and they haven't even hit the road with Mötley Crüe yet!  Twelve hours after the Crüe announced this Chicago band as the contest winner, they were in the studio recording their first single for Eleven Seven Music.  See MakeRockHistory.com to hear their stories. The single, "I'm Bad," just debuted on AOL Music and iTunes.  Check it out here, read the official press release below, and stay tuned for new about the Last Vegas's video blog for Mötley Crüe's upcoming Saints of Los Angeles tour.  You can buy tickets at Motley.com.

Congratulations to Cinder Road, the Fall FameCast Fenom and winner of $20,000!  This cash prize is a fitting reward for the unstoppable Baltimore rockers, since they beat more than 20,000 independent artists across all stages to claim the top spot. Cinder Road's fall victory comes on the heels of an incredible summer touring with KISS in Europe and with the Vans Warped Tour in the U.S.  The band says they are putting their well-deserved earnings toward fuel and touring costs as they earn even more loyal fans worldwide. When asked how other bands can emulate their success, the members said, "promote, promote, promote."  Cinder Road provides a textbook example of how bands can build their fan base in today's industry - just visit them Backstage to see them in action.  

Enter Ernie Ball Presents Play Mayercraft 2 for your chance to rock the open seas to Cabo San Lucas!  As a FameCast artist, your profile can be automatically transferred to compete for this amazing opportunity.  Just head to the Play Mayercraft site and select "Artists Enter Here."  Upload the MP3 of your choice, and then get out the vote from now until Jan. 30, 2009.  The top 200 vote earners willl be reviewed by a judging panel, and the winner gets an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles, where they'll board the Mayercraft Carrier 2 to play on the bill with John Mayer, O.A.R. and Guster during a four-day, four-night musical cruise to Cabo San Lucas.  The prize package also includes an Ernie Ball Music Man endorsement, a year's supply of Rockstar Energy Drink, a $500 Guitar Center gift card and a Hurley wardrobe.

Fans lined up around the Whisky A-Go-Go in Hollywood last night for a chance to see Rock History in the making, and the Guitar Center On-Stage finalists did not disappoint!  The Spittin’ Cobras, Lorene Drive, The Dirty Pearls, Waterstreet, The Last Vegas and The Heroine each tore up the stage in front of a capacity crowd  and all four members of Mötley Crüe.  In the end, there could only be one winner, and Vince Neil announced to the crowd that the Crüe had chosen The Last Vegas to Make Rock History!

The Last Vegas are now the winners of The Greatest Prize in Rock: the opening slot on Motley Crue's 2009 "Saints Of Los Angeles" U.S. tour, $25,000 cash, $20,000 in exclusive new gear from Gibson Guitars, management from Tenth Street Entertainment and a recording deal from Eleven Seven Music.

FameCast is proud to have powered this life-changing campaign!  Check out photos and videos of the event here.

The Fall FameCast Finals start Saturday, Nov. 1.  Eighteen artists (monthly stage winners from August, September and October) will battle it out for our biggest prize ever - $20,000 and the title of FameCast Fenom.

Here's the official schedule.  Also, remember that a new monthly contest also begins Nov. 1 (November, December and January winners will compete in February for the Winter FameCast Finals).  Support your favorite artists in all contest with your daily vote.  Good luck to all!

Nov. 1-7: Open Voting for Top 10

Nov. 8-14: Top 10 Round – Voting for Top 5

Nov. 15-21: Top 5 Round – Voting for Fenom

Nov. 22: Fenom announced

Dec. 1: December monthly contest begins

Take a look around at the new FameCast, home of career-making music contests that reward artists who have the two things needed in today's music industry: talent and business savvy (aka "hustle"). 

We'll be rolling out our brand new monthly contests and $20,000 FameCast Finals starting on Aug. 1.  In the meantime, you can read how the new contests work, see the sweet new prize lineup, check out the artists already competing in August, find out what a Buzz Factor is, and upload your own video so that you don't miss out on all the action starting in August!

How about $20,000 and your band featured in SPIN to fuel those big dreams of yours?

Announcing FameCast’s new MONTHLY MUSIC CONTESTS and $20,000 FINALS!  Arriving in August, these contests will reward artists with talent and business know-how across six new music stages & communities: Rock, Country, Hip Hop, Pop, Latino and Christian.

CLICK HERE to get more details and to find out how you can get in on the action!

Congrats to Justin Ancheta, winner of two 3-day passes to the 2008 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, Aug. 1-3!  To view Justin's winning video, click here.  Justin, we hope you have a blast seeing your favs Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, NIN and FameCast’s own Sofia Talvik!

Congrats to all of the winners in June!  See below for who took home prizes.

• May weekly video winners featured in SPIN:  THE ALLIANCE, Feeding 5000, Ginger Leigh, Kayla Rummell, Gina Chavez, Liz Menezes, BioZero, CYSSERO, Honore', Ghanzarya, Mad Mark Wirtz, JENDOR
• May weekly audio winners featured on FC playlist:  Jinou, Gadget White, Ryan Pugal, Kayla Rummell, Chris Vaughn 1, Gina Chavez, Danilo Taddei, Iz-Ra-El ; GodZ Prince, logic & freshcity, J. Cabrera, Soundscape Soul, Lily Vasquez, Dodging Cathrine, Dalton
• $1,000 – Awarded to Rock artist Feeding 5000, who received the most votes across all video stages for their video, "This Song"
• $500 – Awarded to Electronic artist Danilo Taddei, who received the most votes across all audio stages for his song, "Dark Scarlet Cloud (A Strange Kind Of)"
• $50 Ticketmaster gift card – Awarded to Barry Morgan, Sonja, DJ C Roc and Honeybunchkins for being the "Best Raters" of the month
• $50 iTunes gift card – Awarded to Azlee56 and Ina Sams for being the top two "Most Active Fans" of the month

For more info on their winnings, see the Prizes and Winners pages.

You knew them way back when....and now they're in SPIN!  Grab your copy of the July 2008 issue of SPIN magazine and flip to page 18 to see the May FameCast winners in all their rock star glory.  You can also flip through a digital version of the magazine here. 

Just think... when Coldplay fans around the world (and you know how many that is) read the Editor's Letter about the band, they won't be able to help but notice the faces of these emerging FameCast artists!

Look Inside >>  July 2008

We're giving away two 3-day passes to the 2008 Lollapalooza festival to one lucky FameCast fan or artist.  This is your chance to be front and center for headliners Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West, NIN and FameCast’s own Sofia Talvik. 

All you have to do is create a video less than 3 minutes long telling us why you want to go to Lollapalooza.  It doesn't have to be professionally done – creativity is what counts here.  Submissions are due by July 4th.  The winner will be chosen July 11th and the festival will be held Aug. 1-3 in Chicago (please note airfare and accommodations are not included). 

**To submit:  Simply upload your video to your BackStage profile and title it,"Send Me to Lollapalooza".  Fans, to upload a video you will need to upgrade your account for free here.  

GOOD LUCK!

Congrats to the monthly big winners in May!  See below for who took home prizes.

• $1,000 – Awarded to Rock artist Feeding 5000, who received the most votes across all video stages for their video, "This Song"
• $500 – Awarded to Country artist Kayla Rummell, who received the most votes across all audio stages for her song, "So Am I"
• $50 Ticketmaster gift cards – Awarded to Don L, Aaron Johnson, Les Paul, Christian Phoenix and Azlee56 for creating the favorite playlists of the month

For more info on their winnings, see the Prizes & Opps page.

Chosen by the FameCast community, the May video winners were featured on FameCast TV and will be featured in the July issue of SPIN magazine. Audio winners receive a free FameCast Premium subscription to sell their music online and were featured on the official FameCast Playlist.

May weekly winners: Feeding 5000, THE ALLIANCE, Jinou, Dodging Cathrine, Dalton, Matt Wagemann, Ginger Leigh, Kayla Rummell, Soundscape Soul, Gina Chavez, Lily Vasquez, Liz Menezes, BioZero, logic & freshcity, JENDOR, Comai83, Honore', J. Cabrera, Ghanzarya, Mad Mark Wirtz, Andrew Martinez, Rustie Blue, Hollywood Classic and Brother Lew.

Want in on the action? We're giving away these & more prizes again in June. Click here for how YOU can be a weekly winner.

See the April FameCast winners in the May 31st issue of Billboard magazine, out now! Be sure to grab your copy and check out the back cover. Go here to order your copy online. Congrats to all of the artists!

Congrats to our first bunch of monthly big winners!

$1,000 – Kayla Rummell
$500 – Rustie Blue
Universal A&R review – Matt Wagemann and Heliphino
$50 iTunes gift card – Azlee56, Ina Sams, Debilyn, Groupies one&two and Lala T Da

For more info on their winnings, see the Prizes & Opps page.

The Austin City Limits lineup came out today and playing alongside the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Beck, Manu Chao, John Fogerty, David Byrne and more will be FameCast artist Autamata! The Irish electroacoustic band was hand-picked from the FameCast site by ACL organizers to play the Sept. 26-28 festival in Austin, TX. For more on Autamata, go here. For more on how to see them and the rest of the killer lineup at the Austin City Limits Festival festival, go here.

The Lollapalooza lineup came out today and the FameCast artist that made the bill opening up for Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West and Wilco is Sofia Talvik! Sofia will be coming all the way from Stockholm, Sweden to play this prestigious concert event in Chicago this summer, and we are really excited to hook her up with such a tremendous opportunity. For more on Sofia, go here. For more on how to see her and the rest of the killer lineup at the Lollapalooza festival, go here.