YouTube teams with Cingular, ABC for talent hunt

YouTube, the popular online video sharing service, is teaming up with major marketing and media partners for a competition to discover the most talented unsigned bands on its site.

The promotion announced on Wednesday, called YouTube Underground, is the latest step by the start-up company to build a mainstream media model around the thousands of videos uploaded by users and viewed more than 100 million times a day.

Bands can submit original videos from October 2 through October 18 and site visitors will vote for their favorites. The finalists will appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" show. Walt Disney Co. owns the ABC network.

Cingular Wireless also has signed on as a major sponsor.

YouTube, based in San Mateo, California, has been working on signing licensing deals with music companies and TV networks to ensure they are paid when users view their content.

Earlier this week, YouTube announced its first deal to distribute music videos legally from a major music company by agreeing a deal with Warner Music Group, home to Madonna and James Blunt.

Using technology developed by YouTube, Warner Music will be able to identify which of its music videos and audio tracks are consumed and get paid for them. It can also use the system to identify copyright infringing material posted by users and ask YouTube to remove such material.

(c) Reuters

Technorati tags: YouTube, Warner Music