Electronic Arts are turning to the public once more to create the soundtrack for its Burnout racing games.

Signing a deal with MySpace, the companies have today announced an international search for the hottest new bands in the United States and Europe, in collaboration with Virgin Records and Epiphone.

Open to residents of the United States and Europe, musicians will have the chance to showcase their best track and win a Virgin Records demo recording contract.

One runner-up band from each country will become the proud owners of one top-of-the-range Epiphone Les Paul Custom Guitar.

To enter bands will need to visit the MySpace website and Contest page to create a MySpace account and band profile page and to submit their song (MP3 format only) and MySpace user voting and/or ranking starts the same day. All MySpace users worldwide can cast a vote for any song entered in this Contest, regardless of territory, right up until March19, 2007. Beginning March 20, 2007, the top ranked songs from each country (US and Europe) will be judged by a celebrity expert panel, with consideration of factors including MySpace user voting/ranking, and the ultimate winners (one winning band for the United States and one winning band for all of Europe) will be announced on March 25, 2007.

“Many of the biggest bands around the world have been first discovered through EA videogames, and now we are expanding the opportunity to unsigned bands through this year’s Burnout Bandslam”, says Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of music and marketing for EA.

“The Burnout videogame series is all about attitude and rebellion. So I look forward to discovering a band or two which fits that definition.”

EA’s first Burnout Bandslam was a European-only contest that took place in 2005 in collaboration with Gibson and the Hard Rock Café chain. Beating entrants from all over Europe, The Styles from Italy took the majority of votes and the grand prize for “Glitter Hits”, a guitar-driven rock track, which will now feature on Burnout Dominator.

>> Link - MySpace