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For many indie rock bands fame is just a click away.

This year, music company Mercora is hosting a competition for indie bands on their Web site, mercora.com.

Indie bands put their music on mercora.com and let users vote on it.

The winner is invited to perform at the L.A. Music Awards at the Henry Fonda Music Theater in Hollywood.

“We feel this is a great way to eliminate the middleman and help put the artists directly in touch with the music producers,” said Atri Chatterjee, Mercora’s co-founder and vice president of marketing.

Aspiring indie rock bands can enter the contest by going to the Web site and filling out a form.

The form is then looked over by a Mercora official to validate the authenticity of the information and music.

If all of this goes well, the music is ready for the site and put up with the other bands.

“After the music is put on the site, the band can put a link to their Web site up,” Chatterjee said. “That way, if a listener likes a particular band, they can go to their Web site and purchase a CD or find out more information about them in general.

“We aren’t in the judgment business. We try to be fair to everyone so as long as the music is valid we let the users decide if it’s good music or not.”

Other bands that have performed at the L.A.

Music Awards include Korn, No Doubt, Everclear, Sugar Ray, Black Eyed Peas, and System of a Down.

“Our Web site works almost like a radio network,” Chatterjee said. “Each artist gets their own channel to showcase their own content. They are sort of like VJs of their own music.”

The site currently has over a million and a half users.

“We have around 100 artists and growing. Eventually, I’m hoping to do this every few months and make it a regular thing,” Chatterjee said.

Since the contest is online, advertising is difficult.

“I think people are realizing what you can really do on the Internet now,” he said. “Artists are realizing they don’t have to just broadcast on the street because there is another street called the information super highway where they can reach a much wider range of listeners.”

Users may vote more than once but the last vote cast is the one that counts.

A few of the currently registered bands are Short Faced Bear, Sunbyrn, Omar and the Howlers and Pat Chilla the Beat Gorilla.

Mercora.com has a variety of other genres for users to listen to including comedy, gospel, alternative and environmental, however the contest is currently only open to indie artists.

“Indie artists usually don’t get a lot of play on the radio so we decided this was a good way to help them along,” Chatterjee said.

The voting is open from Labor Day to Oct. 10. The L.A. Music awards will air Wednesday, Nov. 9.

The runner-up in the contest will not be invited to perform at the award ceremony, but they will be invited to attend and view the performances.

For more information, check out Mercora’s Web site and click on the link to the competition in the middle of the page.

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