MSN joins clip contest bandwagon

Most major websites and broadcasters have already tried something similar, asking new acts to upload their videos in the hope of winning a prize and a chance of fame.

The prize in MSN’s Search For A Stand Up Star is a year's 'mentoring' by comedy club chain Jongleurs.

In practice, the small print says this means ‘telephone support and watching at least one live act’ plus at least six paid gigs for the company.

Meanwhile, the Windows Live Spaces web portal, whose parent company made a ‘disappointing’ $2.6bn profit in the last three months of 2006 alone, will benefit from having all the audio and video clips hosted on its site.

Anyone who enters the competition agrees to ‘grant to Microsoft a worldwide, exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license [sic] to use, reproduce, distribute, modify… display and perform’ their clip . The would-be comedians must also waive forever any ‘moral right’ over the material.

Entrants are also banned from having their own page on rival social networking sites, such as MySpace for at least 12 weeks after the competition closes.

Winners will be voted for by a panel of judges, including Ed Byrne who has been recruited to front the campaign.

Suzanne Cook, marketing manager of Windows Live Spaces, claimed: ‘By launching our Search For A Stand Up Star competition, we are giving unsigned comics the opportunity to showcase their talents and get themselves noticed amongst an online audience of millions, as well as providing other Windows Live Spaces Comedy visitors with fresh and exciting new material to

Published: 24 Apr 2007