HEAVY.COM CROWNS PUNCHLINE WINNER OF CONTRABAND

 

Digital Entertainment Giant Awards $25,000 to National Battle-of-the-Bands Video Winner

 

Sir Richard Branson and The Tragically Hip’s Johnny Fay To Judge Canadian Contraband

 

New York, NY – July 2, 2007:  Heavy.com, one of the web’s leading online brands and the leader for 18-34 year old guys, announced today that Punchline has been crowned the winner of the ContraBand battle-of-the-bands video contest, taking home the grand prize of $25,000.  Over the four-month long contest, Punchline created 65 videos that were streamed more than 1,189,157 times. 

 

“Bands are constantly trying to find new ways to build their fanbase, and ContraBand is a unique and effective way of doing just that,” said David Carson, co-founder and co-CEO of Heavy.com.  “Being the big music fans that we are, Heavy is thrilled to propel a lesser-known band into the public eye and help build a rapid grassroots following.  We expect to see big things from Punchline in the near future.”

 

Due to the success of the Contraband in the U.S., Heavy Canada launched a Canadian ContraBand program at Virgin Mobile’s Virgin Festival in Vancouver over Victoria Day weekend.  Canadian Contraband judges include Sir Richard Branson, founder and CEO of The Virgin Group, and Johnny Fay, drummer for Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip.  Musicians will have the opportunity to upload their music and videos to Heavy.com to compete for prizes and a chance to perform live at Virgin Festival in Toronto September 8-9, 2007.  The top 12 picks for Canadians to choose from were announced this week and can be viewed on www.heavy.com/contraband2. 

“I’m delighted to be a part of Canadian ContraBand and support programs like this that give emerging artists the chance to get noticed.  The Internet opens the doors for young bands to create their own content and increase their chances of being heard” said Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group chairman and Virgin Mobile Canada founder. “We’ve seen some great talent so far and I look forward to seeing the winning band perform at Virgin Festival in September.’”

 

To enter ContraBand, musicians created MyHeavy pages starting December 19, 2006, began uploading a series of at least twelve videos (a minimum of one per week) and communicated with fans and Heavy through their page.  On February 15, Heavy whittled down the entries to the top nine bands and awarded the band with the most monthly streams prizes valued at more than $500.  The videos live exclusively on Heavy and participants were encouraged to embed them onto outside sites. 

 

Punchline beat out eight other unique and diverse musical acts selected by Heavy, including: Studio Gang, Alan Singely, Born Wreckless, Bling Kong, Hangar 18, Legacy, A Love like Pi, and Making Movies.

 

About Heavy.com

Heavy is one of the web’s leading consumer media companies and the leader for 18-34 year old males, which is a key demographic for marketers and advertisers.  Heavy combines its own unique programming with those of its users to create an environment where you can control and even participate in your own media experience.  Heavy empowers its audience to share, editorialize, and create their own content as well as provide its own library of programming.  Heavy’s programming staples include “Superficial Friends,” “Kung Fu Jimmy Chow,” "The Massive Mating Game," "Heavy News," "Behind the Music that Sucks," "Heavy’s Angels," "Contagious," "Blisster" and "Tourettes Cowboy.” Portions of Heavy's library of animation and live-action shorts are available on Verizon V-Cast, Verizon Fios, Comcast VOD, Tivo, Sony PSP, Apple iPod and Joost.  Advertisers on the broadband network include Coors, Nissan, Panasonic, Diesel, Axe, Sony and Nike.