Buzznet is a pop culture community that focuses on tours, videos, music, artists, and contests and acquired the Stereogum music blog and Idolator (from Gawker) last month.  Buzznet recently launched Celebuzz.com, a social network for fans of celebrities.

The market is saturated so why launch another celebrity gossip and news site?  Because fans go to “more than one source to get the same exact story,” according to Celebuzz’s general manager, Karina Kogan.  Competitors include TMZ.com, Perez Hilton, OMG.yahoo.com, Popsugar and many more.

Kogan was right.  Celebuzz’s traffic ranking shot up to 12,000k in Alexa within a couple of months. Celebuzz has a social network and content contributed from partner bloggers, celebrity personal trainers and plastic surgeons, papparazi, actual celebrities, etc.

Buzznet, a pop culture social network that focuses on gossip news and has user-generated content submitted in the form of pictures has acquired Stereogum, a music blog. Stereogum’s primary focus is alternative and rock music. This past March, the company raised $25 million.

Buzznet was started by Marc Brown, Steve Haldane, Kevin Woolery, and Anthony Batt. The cmopany launched in 2005. Investors of Buzznet include Anthem Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures. Currently, Tyler Goldman is the CEO.

Buzznet creates contests sponsored by artists and bands. One example of a contest is “Get Dressed by Avril,” sponsored by Avril Lavigne. Buzznet also partnered with Tila Tequila on a site called Tila’s Hot Spot.

Stereogum started in 2003 by Scott Lapatine and has a full-time staff consisting of Amrit Singh, Jim Jazwiecki, Brandon Stosuy, an Angela Williams. Stereogum has legal mp3s for download, artist dates, concert reviews, and other gossip. Stereogum has regular columns called Bands To Watch, Video Hangover, Premature Evaluation, and Quit Your Day Job.

Stereogum will be running independently but will benefit from Buzznet’s resources. The acquisition amount was undisclosed.

Information Source:
[1] CenterNetworks: Buzznet Acquires Music Blog Stereogum