SOULJA BOY TELL 'EM SNAGS TOP SPOT ON FORBES MAGAZINE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC STARS LIST.

Some recording artists toil for years without ever scoring a big hit. Then there's the fortunate few who skip all the dues-paying hardships and skyrocket straight to stardom. That pretty much sums up the experience of Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and other new music acts on Forbes' list of music's hottest new stars. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, whose Crank That (Soulja Boy) was one of the biggest hit songs of the year. Soulja Boy (DeAndre Way, to his mom) got his first exposure by posting songs and videos on his YouTube and MySpace pages, which helped attract the attention of hip-hop producer Michael "Mr. Collipark" Crooms and eventually landed him a contract with Universal Music Group's Interscope Records.

To refer to Crank That as a mere "song" would probably underplay its multi-platform ubiquity. The official video racked up tens of millions of hits on YouTube and spawned a dance craze that prompted Soulja Boy to shoot an instructional video that generated more than 30 million hits of its own. Then there were the countless spoofs and imitations that featured mashups of SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora The Explorer, Alvin and the Chipmunks and others. "Crank That" has also sold more than 3 million song downloads and more than 2 million ringtones. With that kind of reach, it was hard to escape the song's catchy refrain of "Yoooooo!/Crank that Soulja Boy, now watch me/Yoooooo!"

AFTER THE JUMP, TAKE A PEEK AT THE OTHER UP AND COMING ARTISTS (INCLUDING TWO FROM FLORIDA) THAT MADE THE CUT & WHAT STEPS FORBES TOOK IN ORDER TO COMPILE THEIR LIST.

To compile a list of the hottest new stars of music, we examined several measures of popularity and success. To start off, we looked at the top searches and downloads on peer-to-peer networks during the past 12 months as measured by BigChampagne, as well as press mentions as measured by Factiva. Then we looked at U.S. digital track downloads and album sales in 2007 and the first two months of 2008, as measured by Nielsen SoundScan. Finally, we took a look at "mastertone" ringtone sales during the same period, as measured by Nielsen RingScan (mastertones are ringtones that play a snippet of the actual recording of your favorite song).

Other artists who made the list include: Sean Kingston, Flo Rida, Plies, J. Holiday, Hurricane Chris and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.