Their Stage...AOL Partners with OurStage for Content

Boston, MA based OurStage announced a partnership with AOL Music yesterday. The deal will create a rich source of independent content for AOL while extending OurStage reach across North America.

According to ComScore, AOL Music is the highest ranked music site on the web in both total page views and unique visitors. With over 20 million unique visitors per month, AOL provides music fans with access to artist videos, songs, photos, news and lyrics. AOL Music’s network of sites includes Spinner.com, PopEater.com, and theboombox.com.

A while back I posted about OurStage’s cool democratic voting model that allows music fans to discover and spotlight independent music. The company will undoubtedly be a tremendous value to AOL in that it will provide content, including new music by top-ranked artists, interviews, streaming audio, and videos for distribution on AOL Music. OurStage streams new music online to over a million fans in 140 countries around the world each month.

As OurStage continues to develop monetization plans, this deal also includes the use of AOL's Platform A, which will become the exclusive ad-serving network for OurStage.com. The platform will help with ad creation and placement.

Here’s an excerpt from the release:

"As music fans rely more heavily on the web to discover new artists, we strive to provide innovative ways to enhance this exploration," says AOL Music Editor in Chief/Vice President Bill Crandall. "By partnering with sites like OurStage, which allows fans to be an integral part of the artist-development process, we’re delivering on our promise to deliver the best music programming on the Web.”

"OurStage has become an important tool for artists seeking to develop the kind of grass-roots fanbase that can really launch their careers," said Ben Campbell, CEO of OurStage. "AOL's position as the number one web destination for music fans with over 20 million people using the site offers OurStage artists unbelievably valuable exposure. It also offers a much broader audience of fans the opportunity to discover and enjoy the very best music by emerging artists. We are pleased to have such a powerful partner that is as committed as we are to building a vibrant new arena for independent music to flourish."

Still keeping an eye on OurStage, I’m sure there will be more…