NEWS

MUMBAI: Social networking site Myspace plans to kickstart its India operations with a series of concerts in Delhi, Chennai and Karachi. The company also plans to promote rock concerts titled the “Root Festival” in the North East.

The company is partnering with music label Saregama on an Underground initiative, wherein 30 unsigned bands from across the country will be featured in three albums - for Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. The next big thing on the agenda of Myspace India, which launched in Mumbai officially on Thursday evening, is MySpace Live - concerts that will also be broadcast on TV, the first of which will be telecast on Zee Cafe, on a show christened The Gig.

Myspace.com launched officially in India with a party in Mumbia, peppered with performances by popular rock bands such as Pentagram , Super Fuzz and Them Clones. There were additional after party local acts by The Raghu Dixit Project, Shaair and Func and Swarathma. MySpace's international MD Travis Katz and India COO Amit Kapur were present at the launch of the site.

Myspace India, which has been running a beta version for the last two months, aims to be a platform for bloggers, underground musicians and filmmakers.

The Myspace developer platform team plans to visit Bangalore on 21 April to induct local developers onto the open Myspace platform. The company is committed to working with local developers across India and empowering them with the necessary tools to build application for the site’s users worldwide, say company officials.

Myspace India COO Amit Kapur says, “We will continue driving innovation and creating forward thinking business models that foster a more personal, portable, and collaborative web as we continue to grow our international community.”

Myspace India has also tied up with Channel [V] for a TV show - “Campus Star” with celebrity judges, which will involve online voting by the MySpace audience.