Music is Social

We’ve gotten a *lot* of feedback over the past 3 days about next week’s changes to user-uploaded photos and videos on imeem.

There has been some confusion about what is and isn’t changing, and I want to make clear that you will ALWAYS be able to post a profile picture, and to customize your profile theme. You will also still be able to post photos in comments by using standard embed code from sites like Photobucket.

We are listening, and wanted to give you an update on what we can do in response to your feedback.

First, we are delaying the removal of imeem’s photo storage features until Wednesday, July 15th. This will give imeem users extra time to transition those photos to other services.

Second, we’ve gotten questions about why we’re not offering a way for people to download and save the videos they have previously uploaded to imeem. The bottom line is that imeem was created as a place to upload and stream content; the site wasn’t built to support re-downloading of content (music or video), and making that change now isn’t practical for a variety of reasons. Our hope is that most users kept original copies of the videos they uploaded to the site. Our plan is still to remove all user-uploaded videos this Tuesday, June 30th.

This video change applies only to videos uploaded by users. We will continue to be a great place to go for official music videos, and in fact, it will be easier to search for and find music videos as a result of this change. You will still be able to express yourself by featuring these videos on your profile, alongside your favorite songs and playlists.

If you are an artist or label and would like to digitally deliver your video and make it available as part of our library of official ingested content, please contact us at partners@imeem.com.

Finally, we’ve heard from some VIP subscribers with concerns about the upcoming changes. We are offering refunds to those VIP subscribers who are directly affected by the changes; affected subscribers can send an email to VIP-support@imeem.com requesting a refund. Note: This email support address is for VIP subscribers only non-subscribers can email their feedback to our standard support address, support@imeem.com.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback.

Dalton

UPDATED: We are delaying the removal of imeem’s photo storage features until Wednesday, July 15th. This will give imeem users extra time to transition those photos to other services. Read more here.

I want to let people in the imeem community know about a few changes we’re making next week to simplify the site.

Starting next Tuesday, June 30th, we will no longer offer the imeem community the ability to access user-uploaded videos and photos. Any photos or videos that you have uploaded to your profile, or to groups you’re a member of, will be removed from imeem on the 30th. In preparation for next week’s changes, we’ve removed the option to upload photos or videos from our Web-based and desktop upload software.

We’re making these changes as part of an overall effort to simplify imeem so it’s cleaner and easier to navigate. This means enhancing imeem’s most popular social music features, and de-emphasizing some (like user-generated photos and videos) that are less popular, cost more to host & stream, or are of less interest to our advertisers. Simply put, there’s no ROI for us in UGV.

People come to imeem to enjoy music; we want to make it even easier for you to discover, buy & socialize around the music you love. Our recently revamped artist pages, which aggregate artists’ music and videos on a single page, and our new search page are just two examples of how we’re already refining the experience in direct response to feedback we’ve gotten from our community.

This doesn’t mean video is going away on imeem. You’ll still be able to watch thousands of music videos. And creating original video will continue to be a part of the services we offer for our advertisers.

One more thing: next week’s changes will not affect your profile pictures, or the MP3s you have uploaded to imeem – we will continue to give people the ability to upload and stream their music on imeem.

I realize that many of you may have questions about these changes. We’ve created a FAQ here to answer some of them, and have also set up a dedicated customer support forum where you can ask questions or share your concerns. We appreciate your support.

Dalton

I’m happy to let you know that our imeem Mobile app has just crossed an important milestone- it has now been installed more than one million times on iPhones, iPod touchs and Android handsets.

Since we launched imeem Mobile last October, hundreds of thousands of people in the imeem community have downloaded the free imeem Mobile app on their mobile devices. Your support has helped make imeem’s music application the most popular streaming music app on Android and one of the top 100 most popular apps in iTunes.

imeem Mobile has also been an important way to introduce our service to new people. About 1/3 of all people who install imeem Mobile are new to imeem (welcome, new imeemers!).

Since the launch of imeem Mobile, people have created more than 27 million artist stations on imeem Mobile. That’s almost 80 new stations created every minute- a true testament that people are enjoying and actively using the app.

In the coming months, we plan to add more features to make imeem Mobile more social and integrated with imeem.com. We hope you continue to enjoy the app and send us your feedback.

Having our cake and eating it too- imeem Mobile reaches 1 million installs

Here’s the imeem playlist from our a milli party. For the full playlist stream, go to http://bit.ly/FOiqB.

imeem a milli

This week, we’re making some changes to imeem’s video embed and video upload policies. Starting today, only videos from official artist profiles and the imeem jukebox can be embedded and played beyond imeem. This means you’re no longer able to take videos that you or other users have uploaded and embed them for playback on widgets outside imeem.com. We have also limited the length of video uploads to eight minutes each.

These changes won’t impact the vast majority of the imeem community. You can still visit imeem.com to watch millions of videos, upload your own videos, make video playlists and share them with your friends on imeem.

We recognize that the new policy may change how some people in the community use and enjoy imeem. To those impacted, please bear with us and know that we’re making the changes in an effort to better serve the entire community and continue offering the world’s best social music experience.

Since we first launched imeem Mobile last fall, our community, our partners, our friends and sometimes even our families have been asking, “What’s up with imeem on the iPhone?”

Today, we finally have an answer: Our app just launched, and you can install it for free from iTunes.

imeem Mobile for iPhone, which is available now as a free download through Apple’s App Store, has the same features as the popular Android app we launched last fall. With imeem Mobile, you can:
•  Create stations with music from your favorite artists;
•  Listen to featured stations programmed by the imeem team and our partners (like this one of songs featured in Apple ads)
•  Buy songs from the iTunes Store with one-click and download them to your iPhone
•  Share songs with friends via email

It also includes MyMusic, a feature that enables people who have uploaded their personal music libraries to imeem.com to stream that music through their iPhone or iPod touch. We think it’s a cool way to access the music you love anywhere you want, without having to sacrifice space on your iPhone.

Our team has been working for months on this new version of imeem Mobile. We’re excited to (finally) be making it available to the millions of people who own iPhones and iPod touches. And we’re excited to hear what you think.

Hope you enjoy the music.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve added a new Twitter feature where you can now tweet any song, video or playlist with a new “Tweet This” button under each imeem player.

It’s simple to get started sharing your music tastes with your network of Twitter friends. When you’re exploring imeem and find a song/playlist/video you want to share, press the “Tweet This” button on the bottom right of the player.

imeem will automatically open up Twitter with an update and link to the music you’re enjoying. You can tweet the update immediately or you can edit the tweet to alert your friends.

imeem is making it easier than ever for you to share your music tastes on imeem and beyond. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @imeem to keep up with the latest music, giveaways and new imeem features.

Today, we’re releasing an updated version of our mobile service, imeem Mobile, and taking another significant step in realizing our vision to let you enjoy imeem anywhere.

imeem Mobile now includes a tab called MyMusic that lets you access and stream music you’ve uploaded to imeem on your phone. When you upload the music you own to imeem, you can listen to it on the T-Mobile G1 without taking up any storage on the device.

Since we released imeem Mobile on the Android platform last October, we’ve been inspired by the positive feedback from our community, from industry folks and from our brand partners. MyMusic has been our mobile community’s number one request, and we’re excited to be able to deliver it today.

Our team has also been working hard at creating new imeem Mobile features that make it more convenient for you to share and enjoy your favorite music on the mobile device, including:

“Favorite” Stations: Program your own radio station by automatically creating “Favorite Artist” and “Favorite Song” stations with music comprised of the artists and songs you designate as favorites.

Share with a friend: You can now share your favorite songs with friends via email. Similar to imeem.com, friends receive an email with a link to the full-length song on imeem.com.

One last thing- we’ve been getting lots of questions about extending imeem Mobile to other platforms like the iPhone. Our team has been working on some new things on the mobile front, so stay tuned!

Today, we’re excited to introduce a new imeem feature that brings music to the Twitter experience.

Millions of people are using Twitter (www.twitter.com) every day to keep their friends updated on what they’re doing. Now, imeem has added social music to Twitter to let your friends know what’s on your playlist. Friends are often the most trusted source of music recommendations- we hope this new feature will make it easier for you to discover and share music with your friends and followers.

imeem’s Twitter widget automatically lets your friends know what songs you’re listening to and what playlists you’re creating when you’re surfing imeem. It will send out a tweet with a link to that imeem song or playlist so your friends can start listening in one click.

How to add the Twitter integration: If you already have a Twitter account, go to your dashboard (http://www.imeem.com/home/) and add the Twitter widget. You can find the Twitter widget on this page: http://www.imeem.com/dashboard/add/

We twitter at imeem! To start following updates from imeem on Twitter, you can add us here: http://twitter.com/imeem

You can also join the Twitter group on imeem and talk to other imeem users who tweet: http://www.imeem.com/twitter

We’re honored to announce that imeem Mobile won the award for “Best Mobile App” at the 2008 Crunchies awards.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of you voted for imeem, and I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of you for your support. With your help, imeem Mobile has been officially recognized as one of the best technology innovations of 2008.

I’d also like to thank the imeem team members who developed the slick application. I’m continually impressed by the creativity and dedication of our team working here at imeem.

We’re excited that imeem’s first mobile application has been so well received since we launched it last October. Today, imeem Mobile is the number one streaming music application in the Android Market and is one of the 10 most downloaded apps overall.

In 2009, we plan to continue adding more features and make imeem Mobile available on other mobile platforms.

Thanks for helping us kick off 2009 with a bang.

If there’s one thing we love above all else at imeem, it’s music playlists. Not only do we obsessively make our own for every occasion, we love discovering new music on other people’s carefully handcrafted playlists.

That being said, what better way to end 2008 than with a Year End Playlist Extravaganza! imeem has created a single page where millions of fans can come together to enjoy and celebrate the best new songs and artists of 2008 at http://www.imeem.com/extravaganza.

To get started, we reached out far and wide to gather 2008 playlists from a cross-section of musicians, celebrities, blogs and magazines. Check out top picks from everyone from Jason Mraz, T-Pain and Jazmine Sullivan to The Onion AV Club, Playboy and Dale Earnhardt Jr. You can also find out what the imeem community was listening to this year. Explore playlists featuring the most popular songs of the year on imeem plus a breakdown of top 10 songs by city. Ever wonder what imeem users in LA listen to compared to fans in New York? Find out on the Extravaganza.

Once you find a favorite playlist, you can embed it on your social networking profiles on MySpace or Facebook, Twitter it, blog it and email it to your friends to help them discover new music.

Most importantly, we want to hear about your favorite songs from 2008. What was on your playlist in 2008? You hope you join the Extravaganza group and add your playlist to share with everyone else.

Happy holidays from imeem!