15 minutes of fame

With help from MusicNation, video streaming site Babelgum drew 205 participants to its first online music video competition.

Tasked with creating their own music videos, 40 semifinalists will appear in a Babelgum app for smartphones, expected to launch December. Babelgum will also debut smartphone-ready channels designed that run short videos aimed at young audiences.

Entries must be uploaded onto the website before Nov. 16 to be judged by both viewers and professionals, including musician David Ford and French music video director Michel Gondry, who has worked with artists like Bjork.

Winners selected by the jury of professionals will get a record deal with Universal UK, and the "viewer" video favorite will perform live at one of MAMA Group's venues, including the UK's Barfly network, reports The Globe and Mail.

Babelgum, like Joost, is ad-supported and has traditionally focused on professionally-produced video streamed at high quality, distributed via peer-to-peer technology. It went live about a year and a half ago.

The site also hosts an online film festival for aspiring filmmakers, now in its second edition.