Hard Rock International continues its commitment to emerging musicians of tomorrow with this year's Hard Rock Rising, the world's largest and most far-reaching battle of the bands competition. Hard Rock Rising supports the musical careers of aspiring artists around the globe by giving one local band the opportunity of a lifetime — participate in a World Tour at Hard Rock Cafe locations, film a music video, record an album with Hard Rock Records and receive $10,000 in new gear.

"Hard Rock is eager to uncover another pool of budding talent and provide them with an international stage to showcase their talents," said John Kirkpatrick, Head of Music & Artist Relations, Hard Rock International. "More than 12,000 bands entered Hard Rock Rising and nearly one million votes were cast by fans around the globe in 2012 — we hope the continued success of this program will catapult an emerging band to success and introduce their sound to Hard Rock's worldwide audience."

Hard Rock, in partnership with online music services company ReverbNation, will host an open registration for bands wishing to participate in the global battle from Monday, January 7 through Monday, January 2. This will be the second year that Hard Rock has partnered with ReverbNation.

"The influence of Hard Rock's iconic brand — fused with ReverbNation's extensive network of over 2.4 million artists in 250 countries worldwide — is a match made in rock and roll heaven," said Mike Doernberg, CEO and co-founder of ReverbNation. "We're looking forward to once again helping to create breaks for aspiring artists around the globe."

To register, future rock stars can visit one of 96 participating Hard Rock Cafe Facebook pages. Following open registration, fans decide who moves on to the live performance phase of the program and can vote on any Hard Rock's city-specific, Facebook page by downloading free tracks from bands of their choice.

For full rules and a list of participating locations, visit www.hardrock.com.

After fans choose their favorites, participating Hard Rock Cafe locations around the world will host a series of live competitions featuring these local bands. One winner will be selected from each location by a panel of local industry judges. Selected local winners will be narrowed down to the top twenty-five bands worldwide via a second round of fan voting on participating Hard Rock Facebook pages. Once the top 25 are determined, a panel of music industry professionals; including Steven Van Zandt of the E STREET BAND, Live Nation Senior Vice President of Music Toby Leighton-Pope, and Hard Rock Records' Artist Relations Executives John Kirkpatrick, James Buell and Blake Smith; will select the grand prize winner and two runner-up bands.

Following an exhilarating competition process — the Grand Prize winner will play a World Tour in cities including Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Chicago and Honolulu, arranged by Hard Rock International; record an album with Hard Rock Records; shoot a music video; and receive new music equipment and gear valued at $10,000. Two runner-up bands will each receive new music equipment and gear valued at $10,000.