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Guitar Center (www.guitarcenter.com), the world's largest musical instrument retailer, today announced that Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash, a first-of-its-kind unsigned band competition, has received more than 8,000 submissions from unsigned bands across the country, in its first month alone. The competition provides emerging artists the chance to win the ultimate career-altering opportunity: record a 3-song EP with legendary producer, Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Megadeth) and have Slash write, record and perform on the winning artists' single. Through April 30th, 2010, unsigned bands across the United States are still invited to submit their music at YourNextRecord.com for a chance to win the aforementioned prize package, which also includes:

• A management development deal with "The Collective" (Linkin Park, Slash, Avenged Sevenfold) · Feature of winning artists' single on iTunes · Worldwide distribution of winning artists' music through TuneCore · $10,000 Guitar Center Shopping Spree · New gear and endorsement deals from Ernie Ball Music Man · An opening slot on Slash's Monster Energy Bash · An editorial feature on the winning band in
  • Guitar World Magazine A Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash promo video can be viewed here at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWOluHHoccE.

"The response so far has been tremendous and a lot of the music we've received sounds amazing but I still want to hear more," said Slash. "We're looking to find a great band with some kick ass songs and good energy, who hasn't been able to get their foot in the door otherwise, and take them to the next level."

The opportunity coincides with what will be Slash's first true solo album. Slash announced today his CD, SLASH, will release in April 2010. The album features an all-star roster of guest musicians including Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Fergie, Dave Grohl, Myles Kennedy, Kid Rock, Lemmy Kilmeister, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash is just one of many Guitar Center initiatives created to foster growth and success within the music community, including its annual King of the Blues, Drum-Off and On-Stage competitions, among others. Guitar Center's King of the Blues is a nationwide amateur guitar skills competition with the goal of finding the next great undiscovered blues guitar player. Drum-Off is an annual drumming competition that, now in its 21st year, has been a launching pad for many drummers, including Cora Coleman-Dunham and Tony Royster Jr, two Drum-Off winners who have gone on to become highly acclaimed professional drummers (with Prince and Jay Z respectively). Guitar Center On-Stage is a musical competition judged by Mötley Crüe. The winning band, The Last Vegas, has since gone on to open for Mötley Crüe on tour and subsequently topped iTunes critics' 2009 "Rock Singles of the Year List" with their hit single "I'm Bad."

About Guitar Center
Guitar Center is the world's largest retailer of guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments, keyboards and pro-audio and recording equipment. Our retail store subsidiary presently operates 214 Guitar Center stores across the U.S. We are also the largest direct response retailer of musical instruments in the United States through our wholly owned subsidiary, Musician's Friend, Inc., and its catalog and Web site, www.musiciansfriend.com. In addition, our Music & Arts division operates more than 100 stores specializing in band instruments for sale and rental, serving teachers, band directors, college professors and students. More information on Guitar Center can be found by visiting the Company's Web site at www.guitarcenter.com.

The Guitar Center logo is a registered trademark of Guitar Center, Inc. Other brand or product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

About Slash
Slash is widely considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. He has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. An original member of iconic rock band Guns N' Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Welcome To The Jungle." The band dominated the 1980's and 90's music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music. After the band's break-up, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash's Snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver. He has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles. Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.