JD said he launched the new website to take advantage of what Dupri labeled ‘social notifying,’ where people share bits of information with one another, as opposed to detailed information in traditional social networking.
While some may be surprised that the hit making producer has launched an Internet venture, Jermaine Dupri told AllHipHop.com that he has had his eyes on the Internet since he was President of Urban Music at Virgin Records, where he oversaw Janet Jackson’s album 20 Y.O.
He also discovered has latest artist Dondria via YouTube.com.
“I created a contest for Janet’s album where I went to the Internet and asked fans to create an album cover for her,” Jermaine Dupri told AllHipHop.com. “That was the beginning of me engaging people on the Internet. It was overwhelming and it was the most records she ever sold in her first week. That let me know the people wanted to be involved.”
The site is off to a running start, having secured over 10,650 subscribers in less than three months, receives almost 100,000 unique visitors per month and has already attracted celebrities like Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Nelly, Bow Wow, Monica, Kelly Rowland, Anthony Hamilton, Kevin Hart and others.
“People want to have a place where they feel like it’s a cool place and cool spot to be out as well as have conversation and really talk to each other. It took me almost five years for it to get where I am at now.”
Jermaine Dupri said the main difference between his social networking community and others, like Twitter and Facebook is his own celebrity status.
“None of those have an owner that you actually know and feel like you have something in common. People only know the Facebook owner [Mark Zuckerberg] now because of his money. You wouldn’t have hung out with him before you knew what he did. I have an influence on producers, songwriters, artists and creative people in general.”
Additionally, the site features nearly 500 discussion groups with topics ranging from dating and relationships to cooking, education, music and sex.
“Its got the heartbeat of a musician but its a social networking site,” Jermaine Dupri said. “I believe that if you don’t own your own content in the next two years, they will all be out of business. This is just me controlling my own content, because I am content creator. If you need a platform to put your creative content out, that is what this is.”
According to JD, he hopes to show young America that “
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