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Myspace premieres “Take the Stage”, an American Idol style singing competition

Myspace with it’s intense focus on all things music discovery has launched a new talent competition that is akin to American Idol. The competition will feature nine contestents at a chance to win $20,000 and another effort for Myspace to draw attention and users to the flailing social network.

Since being sold in June last year to Specific Media, Myspace has completely changed it’s focus back to it’s original roots of music. They have done a thing or two since then to try to drum up traffic and users, but overall the fanfare hasn’t been much except recently, with a significant and consistent increase in traffic.

With the new musical talent competition, Myspace will run it similar to other competitions like American Idol or The Voice, except there won’t be judges providing feedback each week — Myspace will run a series which they will feature online on their Take the Stage Myspace channel with weekly episodes and contestant videos, galleries, and information. The take home prize for the winner will be $20,000 and the opportunity to work with music mogul Johnny Wright and hit-maker Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. Wright has worked with names like the Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Ciara, and of course, Justin Timberlake.

The new Myspace singing competition is in partnership with Yobi.tv, which is a talent competition network. From the Myspace press release:

YOBI.tv and Myspace are about discovery—both give artists the opportunity to be discovered and empower fans to be the ones to discover them,” said Johnny Wright. “With Take the Stage, viewers have the sole decision-making power, narrowing the field from thousands to just one person whom I get to manage.”

Producer Rodney Jerkins added, “Both YOBI.tv and Myspace are innovators in finding new music talent. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many of today’s biggest recording stars, and am especially excited to be a mentor on ‘Take the Stage,’ helping this talented group of singers develop into the next breakout stars!”

Take the Stage differs from other singing contests by requiring contestants to perform completely original content. Rather than having songs and genres dictated to them, contestants have the opportunity to choose their own unique artistic style, being mentored to develop within their self-identified musical genres.