Airport music usually gets delivered in one of two ways: through speakers hidden in planters, or via ear buds. But JetBlue is hoping to make some noise with “Live from T5,” an online contest that will choose indie music artists to fill the last five slots in its “Live from T5” series of concerts held on selected Friday nights through the rest of the year in its T5 terminal at JFK Airport in new York.
For several weeks now, aspiring artists have been able to go to a Web site operated by online music platform OurStage.com and upload their original songs for public judging. Visitors who go to the Web site can register for an OurStage account, listen to two artists at a time and then record which cut they prefer. Tick-off voting choices let them record that they preferred one artist “slightly more,” “more” or “by far” over the other, as well as “the same.” Voters must listen to at least 15 seconds of each song, to avoid automated voting.
JetBlue judges will select five winning artists from the top ten vote-getters in the contest by early August. Those winners will get to perform in five open Friday-night slots in the T5 concert series next month.
One grand prize winner, also chosen by the judges, will get to open for the headline act at “Bowery Presents Terminal 5,” a popular concert venue in Manhattan’s hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The grand-prize-winning artist will also receive two round-trip flights on JetBlue.
Fans who register at OurStage.com and vote in the contest will also be entered to win a pair of round-trip JetBlue tickets.
And in a nod to the latent talents among its crewmembers, JetBlue has also provided a dedicated space at the OurStage.com site where they can upload their own original songs and performances for public voting. The airline has promised that one crewmember will be selected to perform in the summer shows at JFK’s T5.
Other slots in the concert series, which after August will run monthly through November, will be taken up by artists managed by the Superfly Marketing Group. JetBlue has partnered on the “Live from T5” concert series with Superfly Productions, which created and manages the Bonnaroo Music Festival and several other live music events.
“JetBlue not only provides the most free live entertainment in the skies, we also seek to provide unique entertainment experiences for our customers on the ground in our brand new, state-of-the-art terminal,” JetBlue brand manager Kim Ruvolo said in a release. “Partnering with… Superfly adds more value for our customers, gives them access to some of the most promising artists in the industry and engages them through the online OurStage.com competition to create a music event for customers, by customers.”
JetBlue has made in-flight entertainment a point of differentiation for its service. The airline offer 36 channels of free DirecTV programming as live entertainment on its routes and more than 100 channels of free XM Radio. On flights longer than two hours, the airline offers six first-run movie titles each month, three in each flight direction.
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