Could we take a guess at the number of brands surreptitiously working on their own social networking sites?

HMV has been slowly cranking up - if rather tardily - its digital initiatives, including those 'next generations stores' with digital download hubs and partnering with Gamerbase.com to set up a gaming centre in one of its London stores.

But the company has also been working on a beta version of a new social networking project called Get Closer which it hopes will provide a home for music and TV fans online. The starting point is IMDB or the AllMusicGuide, rather than Facebook, and the demo I've seen heavily focuses on an interactive posts that links artists, actors and celebrities together by inviting users to post connections. So Bjork wrote a track for Madonna, or, more interestingly, Chaz & Dave are sampled on Eminem's My Name Is. It sampled a Labby Sifry track that they were session musicians on, or so the site asserts. And I guess we could also add that Paul McCartney played carrots for the Beach Boys' Vegetables. Anyway...

HMV has been paying bloggers and others to contribute 'connections' to the get the site going and they've reached around 8,500 so far but that's not all, of course. There are the ubiquitous profile options, so users can specify their favourite bands and music genres and likewise for film. It's like Last.fm, but 1.0.

There's another feature that invites users to upload the metadata from their iTunes library to a digital 'shelf', but cunningly you can select which tracks show and which don't, just in case there's a few Meatloaf tracks lurking in there that you don't want to share.

I asked why, when there are so many services overlapping with this, did HMV want to reinvent the wheel? My guide told me this is seen as a complement to the other sites out there - a "social layer".

"Consumers are increasingly using the internet for TV and film, so it makes sense to follow them. We want to be an authoritative source for music and film and allow them to get closer to the music. I mean, who doesn't like music and film?"

Inevitably, we can expect a retail tool to be added to this, which is the money shot as far as HMV is concerned. But they are also looking at opening up the site with an API, and said it's a given that "bits of the site will live elsewhere".

If you're intrigued, sign up for the beta here. We'll be hearing more about this in a bells and whistles launch later this year.