The City of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center are offering a new program apart of their Lake FX 2016 conference. Solo artists and bands are invited to submit an application for consideration to showcase their music in front of major A&R from record label and management teams like Def Jam/Universal, BMG, Big Machine Label Group, along others. Artists can submitted a two-minute live performance video at the following LINK. All submissions are due by midnight on February 5th, 2016. There are no genre limitations, participants must be at least 18 years old and live in one of the following state counties: Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grund and Will. Featured executives on the panel include Laurel Kittleson (A&R Manager Big Machine Label Group), Tuo Clark (A&R Def Jam/Universal Records, 1/2 of Da Internz Production Duo), Jaime Neely (Sr. Director of Creative BMG) and Steve Smith (Smith HQ Management, Former Aware Records A&R Exec).

The submissions will be judged by industry professionals who will be looking for strength in the following areas: Stage Presence, Voice, Originality and Creativity. If selected, auditions slots will be held on May 13th from 3:00-5:00PM and May 14th from 1:30PM-3:30PM.

Lake FX is the regions largest and free event for "artists and creative entrepreneurs and is designed to connect, inform and inspire emerging and established producers working in the film, music, dance, design, theater, fashion, culinary and arts fields." The conference features industry panels, networking events, workshops and performance showcases. The event itself was inspired by the success of 2013's inaugural Chicago Music Summit, later expanding to more programming and entertainment industries. Many have compared it a downsized version of SXSW, a 3-week industry festival in Austin, Texas focusing on film, technology and music.