Nation Beat, a musical group that “bridges folkloric Brazilian rhythms with classic American roots music”, is set to release their sophomore album, Legends of the Preacher, on July 15th 2008. In conjunction with their release, Nation Beat and record label Modiba Productions are sponsoring an animation contest based on the band and their songs, with the animation assets released under a CC BY-NC license. From Nation Beat/Modiba Productions:

Entrants are asked to submit 60-90 second animated music video shorts featuring a track of their choice. Modiba will offer files from the album’s original artwork featuring the band members as cartoon characters. The files will be offered in both InDesign and Flash formats, and will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, so that they can be used in animated videos by contestants. In addition to the $500 cash prize, the winning video will be featured on NationalGeographic.com, Nation Beat and Modiba’s websites, Myspace pages, and a variety of other media outlets.

To submit an entry, participants must upload their finalized videos to YouTube and send a link to info AT modiba DOT net. By CC licensing the animation assets, Nation Beat and Modiba Productions are able to facilitate an interactive and user-friendly means for fans to engage with Legends of the Preacher, all while retaining their commercial rights. This allows Nation Beat the ability to license their music outside of the competition and provides a means for enhanced fan interaction, two vital, yet often difficult to reconcile, methods of music promotion.