Heavy.com's "ContraBand" video contest has ended, with the winning band Punchline having created 65 videos that were streamed 1,189,157 times during the battle-of-the-bands contest. Punchline won a
grand prize of $25,000.
Heavy.com said that, due to the success of the U.S. promotion, a Canadian version of Contraband, sponsored by Virgin Mobile, is now underway.
"The Internet opens
the doors for young bands to create their own content and increase their chances of being heard" said Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group chairman, who will be one of Heavy's judges for the Canadian
competition.
To enter ContraBand, bands created MyHeavy pages starting last December.
Each band then uploaded at least 12 videos (a minimum of one per week), communicating with fans and
Heavy through their pages.
In February, Heavy judges chose the top nine finalist bands and awarded the band with the most streams each month prizes valued at more than $500.