ON September 26 the Facebook page for jamaicansmusic.com was blessed with its 500,000th fan’s stamp of approval.

While some Jamaican artistes have accrued more Facebook fans such as Bob Marley (31.3 million), Sean Paul (2.6 million) and Shaggy (550,000), jamaicansmusic.com has been deemed the most popular Caribbean brand page on Facebook and recent reached a remarkable half million “likes”. Jamaicansmusic.com is a site which started in 2008 dedicated to all forms of Jamaican music from mento to dancehall.

CEO Alex Morrissey , a 22-year-old tech entrepreneur dubbed by the TEENage Observer as “Jamaica’s Mark Zuckerberg”, was waiting for this day for months installing a countdown counter to half a million on his page. “As a young entrepreneur, I feel elated and privileged to accomplish such a remarkable feat,” says Morrissey.

How did he get so many fans? “A counter indicating the number of fans was strategically placed on the website to encourage visitors to be a part of the movement with a Facebook like button so users who visited the site could instantly become fans on Facebook. This was also coupled with a number of local and international promotions. Promotions in Southeast Asia were highly successful, marked by the large number of fans located in that region,” he explains.

Morrissey combines apps, games, and interactive advertising on his Facebook page to inform, entertain and engage his audience, who originate from the United States, Indonesia and Mexico in the largest numbers according to Facebook Insights. In addition, the Facebook page has over 50,000 Jamaican fans.

Morrissey owns other media properties to laterally co-promote his brand including a streaming division which provides live streaming for events and concerts as well as an online magazine IrieZine (www.iriezine.com) and Jadio, a 24-hour streaming radio station with a mobile Blackberry app.

In addition produced the “My Music” app co-branded with Digicel where people vote for popular songs and are prompted with the option to purchase the songs on iTunes.

Separate from Facebook, the Jamaicansmusic.com website has approximately 150,000 unique visitors a month and recently underwent a 180-degree overhaul, and different segments are rolling out weekly until the official launch at the end of October. Some of these features include a robust music area where labels and artistes can create their own personal promotional spaces, promising to be a site that can proudly represent Jamaica on the world stage.

Jamaicansmusic.com also boasts the first Virtual DJ programme allowing users to DJ a party from the site and will soon offer a digital distribution for labels and artistes who are interested.