Mumbai: Electronic Arts, recently announced "EA Amplify Artist Search" contest for residents of Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, and Thailand.

The contest will give emerging bands from the Asia Pacific region, a chance to win a Sony BMG record deal as well as an opportunity to have their song featured in a forthcoming EA game.

The winner of the EA Amplify Artist Search will be selected out of Country Finalists (Finalist and Runner-up Finalist) from each of the participating countries. The country finalists will be judged by local representatives from EA, SONY BMG, Animax, Gibson, Microsoft and Motorola of each participating country while the Regional Grand Prize winner will be judged by regional representatives from EA and SONY BMG.

The winners also stand to win an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Guitar from Gibson, an Xbox 360 from Microsoft, and a MOTOROKR E2 mobile phone from Motorola. Animax and AXN are the exclusive media partners for the EA Amplify Artist Search contest.

Jon Niermann, President, EA Asia Publishing says, "Making our games culturally significant to each country through inclusion of local music and celebrities has been a major focus for EA in Asia over the past year and EA Amplify Artist Search takes this initiative a step further. We hope to create a lot of enthusiasm for this pan-regional competition among music and videogame communities alike."Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing, EA explains, "Many of the biggest bands in the world today have been discovered through the experience of an EA videogame. With EA Amplify Artist Search, we are now presenting the top unknown artists in the Asia Pacific region the same unique opportunity. This is far more than just a contest for emergent music. We`ve created the chance to connect with millions of fans, and instantly launch an international career, with the most powerful partners in global entertainment."EA Amplify Artist Search contest has already begun and will end on June 1, 2007. To participate, bands and artists of two persons or more will have to give their band profile details and upload a song in the MP3 format on the official website. The Country Finalists will be announced on or around June 11, 2007 while the Regional Grand Prize winner will be announced on or around June 18, 2007.