Artists Creating Their Own Online Social Networks

The new social networking component gives fans another reason to spend more time on the artists’ Web sites, while providing the artists with additional opportunities to sell advertisements and make downloads and other merchandise available for sale and download.   

"(Artists) think about MySpace and Facebook as funnels for their own social networks," said Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, which provides the social networking tools for Thisis50, Sara Bareilles and others .

The fact that the artists own and control the content is seen as another significant benefit of the service.