"evolve.fm is a project that I've been putting together for awhile now. It's important to me from a social standpoint to give artists the freedom to express their music to the masses," said Shawn Estes, the owner of evolve.fm's parent company CyberJUMP. "We have a lot of different types of sites in the works, but I've always come back to evolve.fm as our flagship."

Musicians who sign up with special "artist" accounts have the ability to upload cover art, gig pictures, and more than 10 tracks of music.

Currently, evolve.fm is actively recruiting musicians to kick off the site, but fans of independent music can get involved as well with a standard member account.

"My goal is to provide musicians with the ability to be successful on their own terms. We'll broadcast their music and maintain the music charts, but at the end of the day, the musician is the one getting credit," Estes said.

Estes is already working to expand the social networking experience to include an Internet radio station. Artists at the top of the evolve.fm charts will get more plays on the station compared to a newer artist. As the artists grow, so do their plays on the station.

"We're based in Salem, Oregon, but our artists come from everywhere. The site is definitely worldwide, but we hope to be able to regionalize it enough to provide venues with booking information for bands. The next goal is to get the bands out in front of a crowd."