While the music industry remains perpetually confused in trying to figure out the best ways to make money through digital offerings, there are plenty of entrepreneurs seeking success where the big players have failed.

An increasing number of so-called social music sites have flourished recently by hooking up people with like musical interests and turning them on to bands they might enjoy.

The latest to cash in is MyStrands Inc., which earlier this week announced it added $24 million in a B round of funding on top of the $25 million it received in June. The Corvallis, Ore., company has developed a social recommender engine designed to provide personalized recommendations of music products and services through PCs, mobile phones and other Internet-connected devices.

"The popularity of sites like MyStrands, Last.fm and others stems from the desire for consumers to be able to express themselves and to passively express facets of their personality without having to do any additional work," said Jason Herskowitz, vice president, consumer products with MyStrands. "There's so much out there, so how do I find what I like? Instead of me walking up thousands of aisles with a list, how do I stand in one place and have the list come to me and tell me what I like?"

The prospects for the sector received a tremendous boost in May when CBS Corp. of New York acquired music recommendation service Last.fm for a shocking $280 million. Like other personalization services, Last.fm tracks a user's most frequently played songs, organizes the data to create an individual profile with charts and offers recommendations.

Music and social networks have gone hand-in-hand due partly to the popularity of MySpace.com. The News Corp.-owned property began as a popular music site for people to discuss, hear songs from and get information on their favorite artists. Even today it remains a hub for musicians to promote their songs and interact with fans.

But other sites are looking to crash the party as well. Seattle-based iLike.com bills itself as a "social music discovery" service. The site lets users discover and share music playlists, helps them find music that matches their tastes and alerts them to concerts by their favorite artists. Its technology can scan a user's music library to provide recommendations for new music and connect with other fans.

"Imagine a world where instead of a record label or radio station telling you what music is cool, you have your friends telling you what's cool," said Ali Partov, CEO of iLike, which launched in October 2006. "Discovering music through friends is how people have been discovering music for decades, but technology is making that easier."

iLike's efforts at modernizing the music scene got a boost last December when New York-based IAC/InteractiveCorp-owned Ticketmaster agreed to invest $13.3 million for a 25% stake in the company. The companies also formed a marketing agreement that includes information about iLike on the concert tickets Ticketmaster sells.

But iLike's service really took off after the Facebook Inc. social networking site opened its platform to third-party applications. The move made it easy for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook users to download the iLike service, and its viral nature has caused iLike's user-base to explode. In its first six months the service attracted 3 million users, but in the last six it attracted 13 million, Partov said.

"The service fundamentally is about friends, and that's such an important part of Facebook," Partov said.

Where iLike aims to set itself apart from the competition is through more interaction between musicians and their fans. Artists can have their own page on iLike, where they can post songs, videos and other messages, creating a more personalized experience for their listeners.

The rising interest in music-related sites has led to other investments as well. Hollywood, Calif.-based Buzznet Inc. in May received $6 million from Redpoint Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and Anthem Venture Partners of Santa Monica, Calif. Launched in 2005 with an initial focus on music, Buzznet allows users to create multimedia communities around various topics and content that they are passionate about.

Also, Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora Media Inc., which lets users create customized radio stations based on their music preferences, has raised more than $20 million in venture funding from firms including Walden Venture Capital and Labrador Ventures.