A WEBSITE capitalising on the increasing popularity of social networking and music downloading, is to create jobs in the North-East.

Sharemyplaylists.com (SMP) will revolutionise the rapidly-growing Spotify music community, which has millions of global users.

The site, developed by Sunderland entrepreneur Kieron Donoghue, has already formed partnerships with music companies including Warner – for which it ran a promotion for the launch of REM’s new album – and has gained financial backing from the four men behind North- East based Buy.at, which was sold to AOL for $125m in 2008.

SMP combines music with social networking by allowing users of Spotify, which enables subscribers to create their own music playlists from any artist, album or genre for free, to share those playlists with others.

With 16,000 playlists, it already contains more than any other website of its kind and allows users to rate and discuss new releases and playlists.

Spotify is predicted to be the main way of downloading music in the future.

Mr Donoghue is already planning for the growth of his company by revealing plans for North-East job creation and expansion.

As well as receiving a sixfigure investment from Newcastle- based Buy.at founders Steven Brown, David Brown, Malcolm Cowley and Paul Fellows, SMP plans to fuel its growth with revenues from targeted online advertising.

Mr Donoghue said he has ambitious plans for his new online creation.

“As a big Spotify fan, I was extremely excited by the opportunity to develop a complementary site and I just knew the concept had huge potential,” he said.

“SMP allows people to meet others with similar tastes to themselves, bringing in a social networking element.

“Gaining the support of the former Buy.at team has been a fantastic leap forward and a key next step for me now is to use some of the investment to find new offices and get a talented and experienced workforce in place.”