W ith sites already running in Europe and Australia, U.S. social networking site MySpace finally landed in Japan last week, squaring up against the all-conquering homegrown service Mixi.

A version of the network launched on Nov. 7 and, as reported on this page last week, a secret Oasis show followed, with MySpace users being offered a chance to win tickets for it. This, from the start, hammered home what the site has and Mixi does not: a wealth of music content.

Founded in 2003, MySpace now boasts more than 2 million artist pages worldwide, with a user base of 106 million (compared with Mixi's 6 million). In three years it has changed the face of the music industry, bringing fans closer to the creators, giving labels a grass-roots marketing tool, allowing unsigned bands to prove themselves (as with Arctic Monkeys) -- and offering bands a way for fans to download their music for free.