These days, more and more artists can bypass traditional record labels, as long as they're really good at self promotion.

Social networks, such as WeMix.com, an online music community, hopes to be the platform that produces the next Grammy Award-winning artist, or the musical equivalent of MySpace star Tila Tequila. WeMix is a bit like Taltopia and GotCast, in that these companies help wannabe stars get noticed. 

WeMix.com was founded by Christoper Bridges - better known as Ludacris - a three-time Grammy Award-winning American rapper and actor, and his manager Chaka Zulu (who's in the video giving the WeMix pitch). LA-based start up WeMix.com  is a free comprehensive package for musicians across various genres. It launched in June of 2008 and has some 42,000 artists to date.

How it works

On WeMix.com, you have your own profile page (a requisite feature of social networks), you can upload your original songs, beats (instrumentals), vocals (a capella), riffs (short rhythmic phrase), and video. You own your own content. And, WeMix works on the honor system. They assume that the work you claim to be yours, is in fact yours. If an artist becomes super popular, he/she cannot license or transfer any rights to a third party without first negotiating with WeMix for "no less' than a three-month period. Basically, WeMix has the "right to first negotation" to sign a deal with that artist. That right remains even if you decide to just delete your profile and take down your work. The terms are pretty stringent.

So, here's an example of part of my profile page. I uploaded my video and added details to the description. 

A nice personal touch WeMix offers is the ability for you to leave a personal voicemail for when WeMix members contact you.

I was also able to make my own mash-ups by taking content from other artists, notably those on MixMonsta, YouTube, and DailyMotion, and make a "DJ/video mix."  The point of doing this is to help someone create new and cool sounds and styles.

Additionally, on WeMix.com, you can provide feedback by rating the song through the "fix it" or "mix it " system. If you are digging the song, you would choose to mix it. If you are totally "not feeling" the song, then you're more likely inclined to fix it.

Ultimately, the goal of WeMix.com is to find new unsigned artists. The ways to do that are through several fun and exciting contests. For example, to participate in the "Mike Shinoda's Glorious" contest, each person has to enter original songs inspired by the artwork of Grammy Award winning musician Mike Shinoda.

Mike will choose the five finalists and then the WeMix community will determine the winner. That winner will be flown into Los Angeles and Mike will join them in the studio to record that song. And, that's just one of the many upsides to being on WeMix - an opportunity to win a competition.

But much like real life, or like many sites out on the Web, it's a matter of marketing yourself. You can't just join and wait for things to happen. You have to prove yourself online by being proactive.