MySpace today announced the appointment of Alex Maghen to the role of Chief Technology Officer, effective immediately. Maghen will be based at company headquarters and will be reporting to me.Alex is a highly regarded technologist, having held the CTO position at both Yahoo Entertainment and MTV Networks. Most recently he served as CTO of MySpace Music, where he helped create and evolve the MySpace Music product, establishing it as the go-to platform for the world’s artists and the premier online music destination for users. Alex earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and has taught at New York’s School for the Visual Arts.

As we say “goodbye” to summer and “hello” to the most exciting time of year for the world of sports, we are eager to bring you a more extensive lineup of sports activity than ever before here on MySpace. Today, we’re announcing a partnership with Turner Sports that brings NASCAR to MySpace, adding an exciting new element to our sports portfolio and further highlighting the strides we’ve made to deliver a multimedia, interactive experience that connects our users with their favorite sports and other fans with similar passions.

Get in on the NASCAR action:

· Become a friend of NASCAR on MySpace at www.myspace.com/nascar; view and share the latest race highlights, news headlines, league standings and race results with your friends.
· Some of your favorite drivers such as Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, and Denny Hamlin are all here on MySpace. Find them in the driver gallery and show your support before each race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup!

If you asked me five years ago if I’d consider myself a “mad woman,” my answer would might have been different than today. When I started my career, I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world, and somehow I ended up in advertising. Somehow it became good to be mad.

This morning I shared my story and thoughts on the state of advertising on a panel called “The Madwomen of Madison Avenue” at the Advertising Week conference in New York. Joining me on today’s panel were a group of powerful madwomen, including Christine Fruechte of Colle + McVoy; consultant Cindy Gallop; and Wenda Harris Millard of MediaLink.

Many of us have that “inner rockstar” just waiting to be unleashed when jumping on stage at the local karaoke joint or trying to reach those ever-so-high notes in the shower. Tara Thomas just so happened to find hers as part of our recent MySpace Karaoke contest. In partnership with the LA Dodgers, we challenged MySpace users across the country to record their best rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and submit to our team of judges… The prize? The chance to sing the National Anthem during the official “MySpace Day” at Dodger Stadium, Saturday, September 19th against the San Francisco Giants!

As an American R&B/Pop singer-songwriter and self-taught pianist, Tara was a natural choice for the contest. She began performing at the tender age of three, singing publicly in fundraisers and churches. It wasn’t long before she discovered her sultry style, uniquely broad range and trademark “whistle register,” enhancing her appeal among listeners of all musical genres.

We are beyond excited to announce the winners of our Rock the Space contest, in partnership with MySpace Records and Toyota. Meet Call the Cops – a group of California electro- pop rockers who have recently come onto the scene with a refreshing burst of high-energy that brings the party every time. Justin Allen, Will Shuck, Stew Richmond and Bill Galvin have high aspirations to take on the music world and have a little fun at the same time.

They competed against more than 18,000 submissions from fellow unsigned bands or solo artists – all fighting for a chance to win a deal with MySpace Records – and Call the Cops emerged as a fan favorite. After making the top five finalists as chosen by MySpace Records, the band was then voted on by our MySpace community for their original song “Room 410.”

Last night we hosted an intimate MySpace Music “Release” show featuring chart topper Sean Kingston to celebrate the release of his latest album Tomorrow! Hundreds of fans lined up outside the Canal Room in NYC to meet Kingston, who took the time to sign autographs for some of his biggest fans before the show. Throughout the night Kingston performed fan favorites including “Beautiful Girls” and “Take You There” alongside hits off Tomorrow including “Face Off” and “Fire Burning” – proving that this superstar is no one hit wonder.

Today we’re beginning the global beta rollout of a new functionality on MySpace that empowers our users to sync their MySpace status updates with their Twitter feed. Any U.S. user can opt-in to sync their status so that any update created on MySpace will appear in your Twitter feed and any Twitter feed update will appear within your MySpace status & mood.

At MySpace, we believe in open content distribution and want to help users socialize around content in many different places. Your status update is a quick way to tell friends what you’re up to, or in to. Our new sync functionality is part of an ongoing effort to make it simple for people to share their status beyond MySpace and allow friends and followers to interact with that content Web-wide.

This morning I announced that MySpace had developed a new feature that empowers our users to sync their MySpace status updates with their Twitter feed. I’m happy to report that this feature has been extremely well-received across both networks. MySpace is about broadcast, discovery, and self-expression, and sync enables our community to do exactly that.