Imeem Web social network offers ad-backed music

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imeem Inc., a music-based social networking site, on Wednesday launched a digital music service supported by advertising and will share the revenue with the musicians and record companies.

Imeem, a San Francisco-based start-up, said the service will have some 3 million songs from more than 5,000 independent record labels representing artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Barenaked Ladies and Public Enemy.

Imeem will impose limits to its free music sharing system that lets users upload their own music and share song playlists with others.

"It's definitely not exactly how it worked before, but at the end of the day we believe our user base cares about the site and community," said founder Dalton Caldwell in an interview. "We believe it's very much in line with the intent and spirit of the site."

Imeem's new music service automatically identifies uploaded content and determines whether the content owner has permitted streaming on Imeem. The service will distribute a share of the advertising revenue to the artist or record label.

Users will still be able to listen to their own songs in full, but if they share a song Imeem will now only play a 30-second clip unless the artist or label has given permission for it to play in full.

Imeem is the fourth most popular entertainment-multimedia site in the United States after Google Inc.'s YouTube, Google Video and News Corp.'s MySpace Videos, according to tracking firm Hitwise.

Imeem was sued for copyright infringement last month by Warner Music Group, the world's fourth-largest music company, for allowing fans to share its music without permission.