The ECF aims at all professional and amateur musicians in Europe (17years and older), who are able to sing, or play guitar, bass, keyboard,drums, or any other instrument. On the ECF website(http://www.cybermusic-festival.eu), participants are offered the possibilityto search for other musicians in Europe and to create a new music group.However, if the group wants to join the ECF competition, its members musthave must have different nationalities and live in different countries.

Current home recording technology makes it possible to exchange musicfiles via e-mail or internet. Participating musicians therefore don't need totravel and meet with their pop group in order to produce music in a recordingstudio; they rather could use their own recording equipment at home.Participants with no such possibilities at home could make their ownarrangements with a local recording studio.

In the festival's first round, competing music groups are asked to submitone original song (MP3). The 50 best evaluated pop groups are asked to submittwo additional original songs (MP3) in the second round. Finally, the 20 bestevaluated pop bands are invited to perform one of these 3 songs and competefor the ECF Award in the grand final in Maastricht on New Year's Eve2009/2010. The organization of the ECF aims at broadcasting this grand finalon television throughout Europe, comparable to the Eurovision Song Contest.

For now, the ECF Award only refers to honour and fame. Money or labelcontract prizes are not announced yet, hoping to attract really interestedmusicians throughout Europe. Also, the system of pre-subscription isintroduced to create fair chances to participants who want to create amusical group, early 2009, when the real competition starts.

The ECF is organized by MediaMaas.nl, an innovative Dutch media firm inMaastricht, the Netherlands. The ECF initiative contributes to the ambitionof the city of Maastricht to become European Capital of Culture in 2018.

More information: http://www.cybermusic-festival.eu

SOURCE MediaMaas.nl