Bebo has just hired former MTVN exec Angel Gambino to a new position of VP-music as the social networking site looks to rival MySpace in the music space. Gambino was, until January, VP commercial, strategy and digital media for Viacom in the UK, where she worked across 11 channels, and was previously controller of business development and emerging platforms at the BBC. At Bebo, she will be responsible for global music strategy, products and partnerships.

At her own blog, Gambino, who will be London-based, said “lucky me” and reproduced the press announcement, which says she will help “artists and labels to harness the power of Bebo’s base of 31 million users worldwide, enabling them to extend their reach and form one-to-one relationships with their audience [...] she will also have responsibility for devising innovative partnerships between artists and brands and retailers”.

Bebo claims to have 450,000 musicians already. So far, MySpace had pretty much cornered the market on the use of social networking media for relationship marketing in rock and pop. But Bebo is growing fast, boasts a younger age demographic and is more popular than MySpace in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. Company president Joanna Shields’ statement mentions allowing youngsters to “purchase” music, not just add their idols as friends. Bebo last month partnered with online music retailer 7digital to allow independent artists to sell their tracks using a widget embedded on their profiles. It launched Bebo Bands last year.

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