Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash competition

Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash: a once in a lifetime opportunity for unsigned artists to write, record and perform with one of rock's most legendary guitarists.

Continuing its support of aspiring artists, Guitar Center, the world's largest musical instrument retailer, today announced Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash a first-of-its-kind, unsigned band competition that provides emerging artists the chance to win the ultimate career-altering opportunity: record a 3-song EP with legendary producer, Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Megadeth) and have Slash write, record and perform on the winning artists' single.

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Starting today (February 1st), through April 30th, 2010, bands across the United States are invited to submit their music at YourNextRecord.com for a chance to win the aforementioned prize package, which also includes:

- A management development deal with "The Collective" (Linkin Park, Slash, Avenged Sevenfold) - Feature of winning artists' single on iTunes
- Worldwide distribution of winning artists' music through Tunecore
- $10,000 Guitar Center Shopping Spree
- New gear and endorsement deals from Ernie Ball Music Man
- An opening slot on Slash's Monster Energy Bash
- An editorial feature on the winning band in Guitar World Magazine

Watch Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash teaser video:

"The formula that used to work for discovering new artists has been decimated and the opportunities for really talented bands to be heard is extremely limited," said Slash. "That's why it's so important to me and Guitar Center to provide a situation where new talent can be discovered. This is an incredibly interesting way to find and help launch a really great band that hasn't been able to get their foot in the door otherwise."

Guitar Center commissioned leading entertainment platform developer, FameCast, adopting its proprietary contest management technology, known as "Buzz Factor," to collect and present each band's submissions and rank them using a variety of metrics such as online fan voting and community engagement, ensuring that the best bands standout. In addition, all bands will be armed with digital tools to help encourage their fans to vote for their submissions as well as other great unsigned artists. After the three-month submission and voting period the top bands will be personally evaluated and selected by Slash and Mike Clink.

Guitar Center is also a primary partner of Ernie Ball's Shred with Slash promotion which offers musicians the chance to win over $50,000 in prizes, including a private master class with Slash, upon finding one of five custom, limited edition Slash guitar picks in select packs of Ernie Ball electric guitar strings sold exclusively at Guitar Center between February 1st and April 30, 2010.

Picks and corresponding prizes are as follows:

(Information subject to change.)

Gold Pick: (20 winners) A private 2-hour Master Class with Slash
Silver Pick: (10 winners): A custom Ernie Ball Music Man guitar or bass of winner's choice
Red Pick: (20 winners): A $500 Guitar Center shopping spree
Black Pick: (100 winners) Signed copy of Slash's new solo album
White Pick: (1,000 winners) Free pack of Ernie Ball electric guitar strings

The opportunity coincides with what will be Slash's first true solo album.

Slash announced today his CD, SLASH, will release in April 2010.

The album features an all-star roster of guest musicians including Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Fergie, Dave Grohl, Myles Kennedy, Kid Rock, Lemmy Kilmeister, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

Slash is widely considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. He has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

An original member of iconic rock band Guns N' Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Welcome To The Jungle." The band dominated the 1980's and 90's music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music.

After the band's break-up, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash's Snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver.

He has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles. Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.

For more information, go to:

Guitar Center Official Website
Ernie Ball Official Website
Your Next Record Official Website

Slash Official Fan Site
MySpace
Slash on Twitter

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