Clearly MySpace has been in the news and on people’s minds this year. To provide a snapshot of what people were truly looking to find over the past year, Ask.com unveiled a top 10 list of 2007’s most popular search terms. MySpace garnered the #1 spot, while no other social networking service made the top 10. But in the rapidly developing world of Web 2.0, there is no time for sitting on one’s laurels.

MySpace’s new program Transmissions launched last Tuesday. It will offer exclusive video content from recording artists—hoping to capitalize on the site’s prominence as a promotional platform for music artists and labels. Transmissions will also sell audio tracks, videos of private recording sessions and clips of question and answer sessions with artists. MySpace plans to archive this content and make it available on-demand through MySpace Transmissions and on MySpaceTV.

In spite of their immense popularity, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are still searching for successful ways to turn this prominence into revenue. And the music industry needs any solution it can find to its digital conundrum, wherein everyone wants to get their music online but nobody seems to want to pay for it. Josh Brooks, MySpace vice president of programming and content, said Transmissions represents the first in a series of new revenue models for music that the company plans to introduce. Brooks cited opportunities in the video and mobile arenas for potential expansion by MySpace explaining:

I think a lot of musicians are looking for new ways to forge ahead in the digital space.

Social networking sites provide a way for the ailing music industry to tap into the booming world of online video, bringing popular online music consumption into the legal realm and alluring the music industry with the possibility of profit. The visibility artists gain within social networking communities—and, if they play their cards right, the viral spread of their work—create a buzz across the Web, optimizing their product. In an Internet age ruled by Google, or at the very least by search, such visibility is essential.

In light of this, there may be two possible success stories for Transmissions. For the music industry, triumph will relate directly to people buying artist videos. Individual artists however, may find their happy ending in the site’s potential to raise awareness, spread their music, and ultimately optimize each artist’s brand through an increase in online video content and its visibility.