A recording star born online

MySpace.com announced its own music label Thursday in partnership with recording company Interscope Records, in an apparent first for online social networks. The move is a sure testament to the power and influence MySpace has with emerging musicians and tastemakers.

In this case, the tastemakers are teens.

MySpace is the fourth most popular site on the Internet, with 33 million registered users. Probably a third of those people are between the ages of 14 and 20--an age group that's considered to be the biggest consumers of music.

"Social networking is vibrant for kids because that's what they want to do all day. Music is a natural extention for them--it's about what music you listen to and who you associate with that music," said Kyle Brinkman, cofounder of MySpace.

"Then bands started realizing, this is an unmatched way to hit their fan base," he added.

Then MySpace started realizing it had an ideal business opportunity.