2007 Guitar Player's "Guitar Hero" Competition Recap

Published Tuesday, November 20, 2007 3:57 AM by Dan Moore at the http://ampalliance.org/ site

What do you get when you put over 500 guitarists in a room with multiple bars, a stage with a house band, and a PA system? Even though I'm sure there's a humorous anecdote brewing, the real answer is the 2007 Guitar Player Guitar Hero competition at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

So, was this the video game "Guitar Hero"? Not really...even though it was sponsored by Activision/Red Octane, the creators of the Guitar Hero game title for Xbox 360. Rather, this was the final stage of Guitar Player magazine's next "Guitar Hero" competition, that started with thousands of entries from guitarists all over the world to compete for the grand prize and the sole title of the next "Guitar Hero".

The AMP Alliance was proud to be a contributing sponsor along with Microsoft, Digidesign, and Activision. As a drummer (and, alas, not technically a musician), I was very curious to see what this was all about...so I hopped aboard the non-stop from SEA to SFO to check it out.
Once we got inside, we noticed a line of people along the side of the theater. Curious as to what the hubbub was about, we maneuvered around the side and found out they were waiting for their turn to play the Guitar Hero game on an Xbox 360 unit and a 42" wide screen. It was really cool to see the level of excitement this game has generated, and that it is helping raise awareness of musicianship and creative expression to households all over the world.

It wasn't hard to see the promotional stuff...our logos and branding was everywhere, from the programs to the videos playing back on the main projection screen. They sold 578 tickets to the show (about 3/4 capacity of the Hall) with a marketing and promotion reach through the trades and web sites of over 500,000.

We had a really cool "Creativity is Fundamental" full page ad located on the back cover of the program that caught a lot of attention and tied in well with our other promos and branding around the venue and the promo materials.

We had a chance to get backstage and rap with a few of the contestants, including Danny Harvey, Les Robot, and the eventual winner Ladd Smith out of Nashville. We also had a chance to meet and chat with the legendary Joe Satriani and Steve Lukathur, who were both part of the panel of judges for the event.


We teamed up with Line 6 to help build out the prize packages given to all contestants, judges, and VIPs. Everyone received a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate and the GuitarPort software from Line 6. These guys walked away with some serious tools...but they deserved it!

The guitar hero site is using Silverlight

The guitar hero site is now using Silverlight !!!

The Guitar Hero Event - is an annual guitarist competition put on by Guitar Player Magazine of the Music Player Network. This event features the top ten finalists competing for the sole title of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Guitar Hero” – which also comes with a heap of musical equipment and a featured story in Guitar Player Magazine as the winning prize. The finalists were chosen after the staff of Guitar Player listened to thousands of entries posted on SonicBids.com.

The celebrity judges include guitar legend Joe Satriani, session great and Toto axeman Steve Lukather, former Poison and Mr. Big guitarist Ritchie Kotzen, ‘Rockstar: SuperNova’ house band guitar-slinger Rafael Moreira, and the fabulous Shredmistress Rynata.

The Majority of our focus for this event is the adoption of Silverlight as the web media format the Guitar Hero Simulcast, reaching an estimated 500,000 music enthusiasts all over the world! Guitar Player TV has previously been webcasting entirely in Flash, and our involvement in this event has spurred larger discussions between Music Player Network and Microsoft regarding a more permanent use of Silverlight as the standard web media format for all future GPTV simulcasts and regular programming.

"Music business" or "Success Business"

This weekend we are at the 2007 Music-tech

The 2007 MusicTech Summit, hosted at the Experience Music Project's JBL Theater and Learning Labs, will take place Nov. 2–3 and will examine how the changing technological landscape can empower artists and further their careers. Meet many of the most important players in this emerging industry, attend informative panels, network with industry leaders and jumpstart your career


Crossfader was one of the summit sponsors and we are having a lot of video interviews with artists and industry leaders.