Universal Music Group announced a deal on Monday with social-networking site imeem to provide its community with on-demand, interactive streaming of Universal’s extensive digital music and video catalog. The news comes months after Universal and Apple severed ties.
The deal makes imeem the first social-networking company to offer full-length, streaming access to the entire music and video catalogs of all four major music companies on an advertising-supported basis.
Imeem’s 19 million users can listen to music and watch video from Universal’s top-selling artists, such as Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, The Pussycat Dolls, and Nelly.
Sharing the Tunes
“Universal Music Group is committed to exploring new ways for consumers to discover and enjoy our artists’ music online,” Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO of UMG, said in a statement. “Imeem has developed an innovative way to make our artists’ music a central part of the social-networking experience.”
More importantly, Morris went on to say, imeem has done so “the right way” by working to provide “an exciting musical experience for consumers, while ensuring that our artists are fairly compensated for the use of their works.”
Dalton Caldwell, founder and CEO of imeem, called the deal “a defining moment for social networking and ad-supported music.” Imeem’s ad-supported social music and media model makes it possible for artists, labels, studios, and media companies to make their music and video freely available for interactive streaming to the imeem community and share in the advertising revenue.
Imeem takes a much different approach to the strategy than, say, Spiral Frog, another online community that offers ad-supported music. While Imeem allows listeners to stream music, Spiral Frog allows consumers to download tracks (with digital rights management that prevents file-sharing). Some analysts are skeptical about the latter model’s potential for long-term success.
Different Musical Models
“Consumers love the…