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HIGH NOTES

As I write this, a pop-up tells me that the talented and popular Lily Allen has just posted a new blog entry on MySpace.com.

My first instinct is to quickly click away to Lily's engrossing blog about her personal nothings and everythings. "Focus on the job at hand," I tell myself instead, but I have to admit it's getting a little difficult these days. And so I click.

Having given into temptation, once again, let me tell you about MySpace.com, the best and worst thing to happen to music junkies like myself. It may be late in the day to be talking about social network sites like MySpace but even after it's become a global cultural phenomenon, I cannot help but still be truly fascinated by it.

I've been trying to recall the first time I heard about MySpace but all I can remember is its creeping into my consciousness unsuspectedly and becoming a valuable source of musical information and, so, part of my daily routine.

Over the last year the portal has been responsible for a major shift in the way that musicians and their music has been presented to global audiences. With over 105 million accounts created so far, MySpace ranks in the top five most visited websites and the most visited social network website in the world.

It's easy to see what made MySpace.com the kind of social phenomenon that it has become. People create profiles, maintain and update personal blogs, read others, add friends, make new friends and, of course, find out what next every music artiste in the world is up to.

It doesn't matter how big an artiste you are. Chances are that your MySpace profile will get far more hits than your official website will. And to have millions of users that can help spread word of your music and even link to your actual music is definitely an added advantage. So it's not really surprising to know that everyone from Iron Maiden to Ayub Ogada has a MySpace page these days.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned website (his media conglomerate News Corporation bought MySpace in 2005 for $508 million) has shown more results in terms of spreading word about new albums and music than most other sites. Today, every artiste about to release an album will have his music up on his MySpace page well before the official release date.

Its very characteristics are what help a music industry in constant turmoil find a way to create popular artistes and hits by directly reaching the target audience.

In fact, A&R departments in music labels are aided by services like these. A&R representatives no longer have to rely entirely on their own instincts, they can easily go by the number of friends that an artiste has or merely by the number of times that a page has been viewed.

That should tell him as much that he needs to know bout how people are taking to an act. That he can also listen to the music (most times entire songs), view videos and read blog entries is really all he needs before actually meeting the artistes and seeing them perform.

UK artiste Lily Allen quickly became the darling of MySpace after she uploaded her music on her page and then began to write a blog on her life. Her page went on to get over a million hits even before she released her album Alright Still.

The portal has been especially useful to unsigned yet unheard talent who need a platform to showcase their work. They could be from anywhere in the world and can be heard by anyone in the world.

Marketers have also been quick to notice that MySpace and other social networking sites can be hugely beneficial to their product campaigns. It's been estimated that marketers will spend close to $400 on advertising campaigns on advertising on these sites.

If anything, MySpace is like a music messenger from cyberspace telling you all that you need and want to know about music. In the US they have even managed to go mobile and users can actually update their profiles on their phones. It's brilliant...simply brilliant!