MySpace Buys and Then Takes Down Imeem

Conchobair was one of several users letting us know that Myspace has snapped up free music streaming site imeem. Visitors to the imeem site are being sent to a MySpace redirect page, which states that they are "working to migrate your imeem playlist to MySpace Music." Currently there is no way to access imeem music or playlists or to make use of imeem apps on Android or iPhone. The AP reports that the deal was done for less than $1M — not bad for 16M subscribers — noting that the music startup was running out of cash. PC Mag notes: "Last week it was announced that Apple had purchased Lala, and now MySpace snaps up imeem. Are Pandora and Rhapsody next?"

Comments

Myspace is fast losing relevance

[mcrbids]

The combination of crappy layouts, shoddy design, counter-intuitive interface, and juvenile audience are all working together to render Myspace irrelevant. I just checked my myspace page, apparently for the first time since May of this year.

Nothing's changed...

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

However, MySpace did provide people with free email addresses at MySpace as a ploy to get them to use the MySpace interface on a regular basis.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[DreamsAreOkToo]

Slashdot should employ the use of a new filter. If you are posting anonymously, your post should be rejected if it contains any racial slurs or other obvious flaming.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[nametaken]

MySpace sucks, and if they're smart they'll stop buying companies and work on a complete overhaul. Facebook ate their lunch and MySpace still does nothing to fight back.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[quangdog]

I second this.

Not that my vote counts for much....

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot should employ the use of a new filter. If you are posting anonymously, your post should be rejected if it contains any racial slurs or other obvious flaming.

|\|1gg3rs.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[sznupi]

I wish...

For some reason many / most(?) of interesting new music bands choose to use Myspace as their homesite.

I'm really torn; great new music (yes, there's plenty of those if you care to look around) versus crappy nature of Myspace.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[stonedcat]

Censorship you say? Not the kinda thing slashdot was built on.
No matter what a person wants to say, censoring it is not the answer... ever.
As much as I might take offense or disagree with someone it doesn't give them any less right to say what they wish.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[sznupi]

Accidentally banning "13375p3ak" is a plus in my book.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot should employ the use of a new filter. If you are posting anonymously, your post should be rejected if it contains any racial slurs or other obvious flaming.

Eat a dick, slutbag asshat doucheface fartsicle!

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, publish you home address so we can discuss this in person. Or are you just another Internet douche that is not willing to stand up for anything?

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[obarthelemy]

The horrible thing is that, like IM and file formats, there's a strong network effect. There's a strong incentive for everyone to use the same site, pretty much regardless of specs, functionnality, reliability...

Hopefully someone will come up with some kind of Social Web standard and filters, that will let us import/export content and contacts between sites, maybe set up front-ends on several sites but point them back to our own site...

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[commodoresloat]

friendfeed.com perhaps?

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[rolfwind]

Sounds like the geocities of this decade.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

I should've known Obama would have the CIA crack my Facebook password!

-Sarah P

--
Palin/Beck 2012
Palin/Limbaugh 2016
Palin/TBA 2020
Palin/TBA 2024
Palin/TBA 2028
Palin/TBA 2032
Palin/TBA 2036

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Gerzel]

Yeah but if the companies allowed that they'd lose their customers.

The only way is for you personally to use sites other than those that you dislike or else nothing will change. Users have to move away from the sites, because if the users don't show themselves to be mobile the sites won't improve.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[rackeer]

Improve it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hghpuxCHTc&feature=player_embedded

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

This still plays with MySpace? I mean, I guess, there's some musicians that released a song and the only way to play it was through their MySpace page. But, other than small things like that, I've seen more people switch to Facebook, or just joint Facebook never having Myspace, in the last year. I feel like I'm counting down MySpace's death.

Then again... that may just be wishful thinking (I can't stand MySpace... not for what it is, but because it's interface is a beast from hell that drives me damn near insane every time I use it; it makes me scared of getting some homicidal ideations towards the guy(s) who programmed it).

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[spartacus_prime]

N_GGERS?

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

N_GGERS?

It's "NAGGERS" Pat.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[mdwh2]

But I'm from Scunthorphe, and I was merely trying to talk about my pet raccoon!

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[mdwh2]

There are some attempts - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_(software) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID (the latter being a great way to comment on a friend's page who uses a different server to the one you're registered with - unfortunately it has a bad reputation here on Slashdot by clueless people who mistakenly think it's supposed to be something to replace your bank account login method with).

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Anonymous Coward]

There are plenty of other music communities. last.fm is a great place.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[TangoMargarine]

...says the guy who's posting anonymously.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[default luser]

But I'm from Scunthorphe, and I was merely trying to talk about my pet raccoon!

Yeah, how are we supposed to have a serious discussion about Essex when you won't stop touching my Ballston?

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[Yamata no Orochi]

...says the guy who's posting anonymously.

"TangoMargarine" isn't exactly less anonymous than Anonymous Coward.

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[TangoMargarine]

Marginally. It's the thought that counts :)

Re:Myspace is fast losing relevance

[apoc.famine]

How about not browsing at -1, and not replying to trolls? It's quite easy to do, actually. I would have never seen that post if you hadn't replied to it.
 
Ignore it, and it will be modded out of sight.

who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

In this day and age, who the hell would even need/want to stream music?

I'm glad I have all of my music on my hard drive. I'm not about to let some external party control what I listen to or when I listen to it.

Re:who streams music?

[Beelzebud]

You'd be surprised. I know a few people that use Pandora constantly, even though they have their own large mp3 collections. A couple of others I know that uses streaming music do it because they're not computer literate enough to rip their cd's to mp3 and set everything up properly.

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

I hate listening to the radio, so for awhile I tended to miss out on most new stuff. A couple of times, my absolute favorite bands released a cd without me even knowing because I wasn't paying attention.

Pandora fixed everything I hate about normal radio. Now I enter in all my stuff, and still get recommendations on new music. If I don't like a new song, I just skip it. Pandora has introduced me to many new bands which I love.

And yes, I have a massive cd collection, all ripped to mp3 and carried on my iPhone, so streaming does make sense for people with a large collection.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

Your CD collection is barely above trivial if it fits on an iPhone, and certainly not 'massive'.

Re:who streams music?

[Rennt]

I'm not about to let some external party control what I listen to or when I listen to it.

Pfft. Its not about control. Its music as a service.
Streaming music replaces and improves on radio, not your private collection. I have an extensive mp3 collection but enjoy my last.fm subscription when I want something to listen to I haven't heard before. Being able to listen to personalised streams from anywhere with a connection has come in handy many times too.

Re:who streams music?

[PhantomHarlock]

Hipster fight!

Re:who streams music?

[The_mad_linguist]

By "massive CD collection" he means "Laserdisc collection".

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

I have the 32gig iPhone 3gs. Currently there are over 5400 songs on it, spanning 15 solid days of music. Maybe it's not "massive" in your eyes, but it's enough to keep me entertained.

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

Someone just posted the following to another thread of mine: "I moderated in the myspace thread, so i cant comment there, and you don't have your email listed, but 5400 songs is what i had after a two years of dialup on napster/audiogalaxy back in my high school days. i think 30 gigs for a "serious" music collection is pretty small given all things considered." I think we've gotten to a point where quality takes a back seat to quantity in these mp3 hoarding days. Honestly, I can't say for certain that I really love every single one of the 5400 songs on my iPhone. I could probably stand to delete quite a few, and I'm sure anyone who claims 30 gigs isn't a sizable music collection probably has tons of stuff they could easily delete without missing.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah and that worked out real well, didn't it? I'm still sitting here listening to my music while everyone who relied upon Imeem is now screwed.

Cloud computing at its finest.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

Do your friends need reminds about when to breathe? Seriously, you need either smarter friends, or you need to set them up with a different computer.

Insert CD. iTunes opens. Asks if you want to rip this. Click yes. Plug in your iPod. Click the button that says 'yes, sync this ipod with this computer'.

I assume Windows offers similarly easy functionality these days, even without iTunes. C'mon, we aren't talking about the days of looking up command line switches to Lame.

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

Let's say an average song is 3 minutes, and you're using a bit rate of 192 kbps. That's about 4.2 MB per file, which means you can fit about 7800 songs on a 32 GB iPhone. With an average of 15 songs per album, that's 520 albums. Sure you need some space for other stuff as well, but it's still safe to say you can carry about 450 albums around.

So I wonder... is this the sort of amount that's "a trivial CD collection" to you? I know I don't have that many albums, and I think of myself as a music lover.

Re:who streams music?

[TubeSteak]

Let's say an average song is 3 minutes, and you're using a bit rate of 192 kbps. That's about 4.2 MB per file, which means you can fit about 7800 songs on a 32 GB iPhone. With an average of 15 songs per album, that's 520 albums. Sure you need some space for other stuff as well, but it's still safe to say you can carry about 450 albums around.

Now consider that albums sell from $10 to $25 dollars a piece.
450 albums is worth $4,500 to $11,250.
That's not trivial to most people.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

So what you're saying is that it looks big to you? That comment carry water with your girlfriend? I always go with "it's not the size of your axe, it's how you swing it" but whatever works for you.

(I had another reply written, but it's still Tuesday where I am. Suffice it to say that 5400 songs ain't much. 500 albums? Puh-leeze.)

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

I'm not sure I understand, what made you decide to turn this thread into some absurd superiority battle over who has more music? My initial post was trying to explain to someone else why streaming still makes sense in this day and age, and you turned it into a dick measuring contest. Go troll someone else.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

Hardly. My taste in music is about as square and mainstream as it gets.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you bought those albums all at the same time. Most people slowly accumulate their music libraries over many years. My own collection of 500 some CDs date back 20 years, so let's apply some real numbers.

500 * 15 = 7500 (I have never had to pay more than $15 for a brand new CD)
7500 / 20 = 375

So if you buy an average of 25 CDs per year, you are spending about $375 per year. That is trivial.

Re:who streams music?

[tagno25]

Try 80GB of "legal" music. In ~80GB (could be larger by now) I have ~4 months of never hearing the same song twice, unless you use "random" and then you hear the same song multiple times in a day.

Of course I am nowhere near "normal", I have a 1TB (SI) drive that is 91% full of ONLY anime in Japanese with English subtitles. I am also building a 6TB RAID6 network storage server.

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

Again, I was never trying to claim that I was the king of having digital music, nor that I have more than any other Slashdotter ever. I was saying that streaming digital music still makes sense for someone who has all the music they already want at their disposal.

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

How the hell is doing something for 20 years trivial by any human standard?

Re:who streams music?

[Rennt]

You seem to have the wrong idea about how these services work. It's not YOUR music stored in the cloud. Its just a internet radio station.

Maybe this revision to the original statement will illustrate my point. "In this day and age, who the hell would even need/want to stream video? I'm glad I have all of my video on my hard drive." - It's non-nonsensical. It does not make sense.

As an Imeem user you have not "lost" anything except access to a cool service. Shit happens, but not to worry - there are other suppliers

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

I tend to buy music on eBay. I find tons of cds still wrapped in their original cellophane, but with a slightly cracked case that keeps them from being sold in stores. I buy the cds (usually under $5) and then replace the jewel cases with ones I buy in bulk. Much cheaper that way, I still get a disk that is in perfect condition that I can rip to my own specifications, and no stealing online.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what SHE said!

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

500 albums

You spent MORE than $7,500 on music (averaging ~$15/album)? (Perhaps you bought them off iTunes, which would be just short of $7000 at $1.29/song)? I wouldn't even have the patience to sit down and buy all that music, let alone the disposable cash..

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because most people only enjoy music for a couple years of their lives and then give it up completely.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

Ripping CDs, a collection I've been building since 1985.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

I'm bored, and wasn't up for another hour of the Leonard Maltin Game (seriously, played for an hour or so each of the past two nights). You made a simple, silly statement, and I chose to pick at it.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

I'll judge my numbers from 2000, as I haven't bothered to look closely since then. At the time, I had roughly 500 CDs amassed over 15 years which works out to 34 per year, far less than one per week. Average price was probably about $15, so $7500 spent, again, over the course of more than a decade. This ignores the gifts from family and friends.

It ain't that hard.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

When you're old enough to drink, we'll tell you.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

No, you just claimed your collection is massive. We are trying to disabuse you of that notion.

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

Well thanks for playing the game, but getting snarky because you disagree with the adjective I chose to describe my music collection is a little over the top. Lets just agree to end it?

By the way, did you register a username? I'm obviously NoPantsJim...

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

So the crux of the matter is that you are young enough to have a different perspective.

Looking through the thread, it seems that you were not yet in elementary school when I got my first CD. That gives me an extra ten years. So, ten years from now, if you maintain an interest in music, look back on the size of your collection today, and you'll see that it isn't much.

I look at my father, who has been collecting vinyl since somewhere in the mid 60's (I don't count 45's from before that). If 500 albums seems like a lot, I can only imagine that you'd faint at what he's amassed over 50 years.

Re:who streams music?

[gmhowell]

I don't get relieved for work for another 20 minutes, but I grow weary of this, so I'm about done with the trolling

I hadn't registered yet, but probably will next week (I don't browse slashdot from home, and I'll forget about it until then).

My only complaint is that it doesn't seem to grab movies from a wind enough range of years. I need to look and see if there is more info in the 'about' page, but I suspect some of the things that tend to annoy me are either design choices that are valid, expressing preferences that don't matter in an objective way and/or the source material forces certain choices.

Re:who streams music?

[Lemmy Caution]

Does classical music still land you in a hipster fight?

Re:who streams music?

[xaxa]

Try 80GB of "legal" music

I have 120GB (or so) of music, about 12GB of it is legal (~100 CDs, which is 1-4 per month bought since my first job).

It swelled my e-penis, but it got to the point where I realised I was choosing to listen to the same things all the time as I couldn't remember what I had, or whether it was any good. Using "random" meant I'd hear too much crap that I didn't really like. Using "play similar songs" (e.g. using Amarok) had a tendency to drift towards more popular artists. I've been going through and deleting albums in the last few months, so far I've removed 30GB of stuff and it's much better now :-).

I also have ~30GB in my downloads folder, which I haven't listened to yet. I don't seem to have time.

(PS Anyone suggesting I should spend more on CDs is welcome to see my collection of gig tickets.)

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

If you've been collecting albums for over 25 years, then it makes sense you have a lot of them. But that doesn't mean that a few hundred albums is suddenly "trivial", because you don't know the age of the guy you're saying it to. That fact that you are over 40, doesn't mean everyone is.

Don't project your standards on others.

Re:who streams music?

[DarkOx]

450 albums is worth $4,500 to $11,250

  450 albums cost $4,500 to $11,250 new; just try and resell them you will find out what they are worth and I can tell you its going to be less than $4,500; unless you lucked into something very rare and considered important.

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

For someone who has both Jesus and John Lennon in his signature, you sure seem cynical.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep telling yourself that shit and you might start to believe it.

In the meantime I am STILL enjoying my music while those who rely on Imeem are STILL screwed. Make all the excuses that you want, it won't change that fact.

Re:who streams music?

[xaxa]

I'd say 500 is a moderate amount for a serious music fan, but a large amount for a normal person.

I have roughly 100 CDs, bought since April 2007 (2.75 years ago, when I first got a job), which works out to a CD bought... wow, every 10 days. I'm surprised, I didn't think I bought that many... (((100.0/(2.75*52))**-1)*7?)

A friend of mine is only a year older than me, and has over 1000 CDs. Another had twice that many when I was 18, he probably has 5000 by now. Most people I know with a serious interest in music probably have 50-200.

Re:who streams music?

[xaxa]

anyone who claims 30 gigs isn't a sizable music collection probably has tons of stuff they could easily delete without missing.

Music lovers tend to collect complete albums, and wouldn't want to delete odd songs.

Re:who streams music?

[Rennt]

Yeah, thanks for playing, dickwad.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this rated 'informative'? It's some dude boasting about how many (totally hardcore, really!) animes he has. It's not informative, it's silly.

Re:who streams music?

[BrentH]

Takes about 10 minutes per CD. Streaming is instant. Streaming wins.

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

So, ten years from now, if you maintain an interest in music, look back on the size of your collection today, and you'll see that it isn't much.

No, in 10 years, 500 albums is still a lot for someone who hasn't been collecting as long as you have.

You are correct in saying that the size of a collection can be called small or large relatively to the time someone has been collecting. This automatically means that if you don't know how long someone has been collecting, you cannot make any judgement on how large or small someones collection is to them.

So don't critize someone for saying his collection is huge, because it is not huge for you. It could very well be huge for him.

Re:who streams music?

[dingen]

Also, please don't criticize me for misspelling criticize.

Re:who streams music?

[imakemusic]

In this day and age, who the hell would even need/want to stream music?

Lots of people.

I'm not about to let some external party control what I listen to or when I listen to it.

Then use spotify or pandora and stream what you want, when you want.

Re:who streams music?

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

I have a Zune, you insensitive clod!!!

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, in 10 years, 500 albums is still a lot for someone who hasn't been collecting as long as you have.

500 CDs is nothing for 10 years for people like the poster who were around when CDs hit the market. You need to understand what it was like when CDs came along. Not only were we buying new albums regularly, but we also purchased a hell of a lot of stuff we already had on vinyl and cassettes. This back catalog replacement process created a massively artificial picture of how successful the music industry was in album sales. Once CDs became the only option, the younger people didn't have a library of old format material to replace, and the older ones had already done it, hence a huge decline in sales.

Re:who streams music?

[drinkypoo]

I hate listening to the radio, so for awhile I tended to miss out on most new stuff. A couple of times, my absolute favorite bands released a cd without me even knowing because I wasn't paying attention.

Isn't this what RSS is for?

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

I suppose that's a valid point, however it wouldn't be very effective for learning about new bands the way I have with Pandora.

Re:who streams music?

[crazycheetah]

Pandora is what gets me to stream. While I have many means of finding new bands/musicians to listen to, I have also found some I hadn't come across before Pandora. And sure, I have a pretty nice music collection, but every once in a while, I want to listen to something that I *don't* have on hand. And Pandora is great at that, also, and also gives me that perfect chance to start searching for and checking out some new bands. I also much prefer to stream a few songs of a band, then go from there, than to just download their latest or greatest or entire discography. Streaming's just a faster means of getting to it, and if I'm cool with listening to other stuff alongside it, why not?

Re:who streams music?

[228e2]

A lot of people, like me, work in a place where you cant bring in mp3/Cd players. So internet radio is all we have.

Re:who streams music?

[theIsovist]

There's a huge benifit to streaming if you don't actually want to pay for the music you are testing out. I find my music through blogs and podcasts. I then tend to take the songs I like on there, and head to Lala, which allows me to listen to the full cd once (streaming). If I like the CD, I'll buy it. If I'm not sure, I usually end up on the band's myspace page, or any other page where I can listen to the songs more than once to decide. If I had to buy and rip a cd every time I found a single I liked, I'd be broke.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Restating your point without addressing any of Rennt's points, I see.

Has debating really just gotten down to this? What ever happened to open minded, intelligent debating? That was fun, but that was then. This is now. Now, I've reserved my head away from any debate, unless I know the person can actually hold a true, good debate, which we can both actually take away from.

I'm sorry for my anger getting me on this one. I've just seen too much of this, lately.

AC because the other AC doesn't deserve to get seen, IMHO.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course I am nowhere near "normal", I have a 1TB (SI) drive that is 91% full of ONLY anime in Japanese with English subtitles.

This is a website for nerds, not furries. Go back to 4chan, fag.

Re:who streams music?

[jareth-0205]

Do your friends need reminds about when to breathe? Seriously, you need either smarter friends, or you need to set them up with a different computer.

So what? Maybe you have the time and inclination to rip hundreds of CDs but some people don't. Why bother when there is a reliable network connection and sites willing to stream the same music, *and* introduce you to new things you haven't heard yet, *and* indulge any particular urge you have to listen to something you don't own.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no we, there is a you...

Please don't use the word we when it does not apply. Your level of douchery is too massive to fit on an I

Re:who streams music?

[JasterBobaMereel]

I *have* a massive CD collection ... It would not fit on the iPhone (if I had one) ... a 10th of it would not fit on an iPhone (max is 32 GB minus space for other things)

Most of the bands I like and actually bother buying are not played on the radio (or at least not on any stations I can regularly get where I am) they often release a new CD without any radio station paying any attention .....

Re:who streams music?

[Taibhsear]

Aw 80GB... that's so cute. (pets head)
Let me know when you catch up to my 250 GB of legal music (not counting FLAC). And I'm sure there's plenty of people that would think my 3.5TB of media is quaint. But how about we put away our E-peens and focus on the topic at hand.

Re:who streams music?

[MrCrassic]

You know what this reminds me of?

 

"My cock is much bigger than yours! My cock can walk right out through the door."

Re:who streams music?

[FatAlb3rt]

Wow, you still buy CDs?

Re:who streams music?

[mdwh2]

It's non-nonsensical

You're right - it isn't nonsensical.

There's a place for both ways, but I still think streaming is done not because it's better, simply because there's often no legal choice at that level of cost. Certainly I've had the experience of paying for my "video streaming" service, only to have the TV series cut off half way through: when Virgin Media and Sky had a petty fight a few years ago, and VM decided to cut the Sky channels because they couldn't afford the 3p a day (was I as a customer even offered if I wanted to pay that 3p a day? Nope. Did I get a 3p a day reduction in my bill? Nope.)

TV is okay for background noise or when you just want something to randomly watch, but it's not something to rely on to watch a series.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummmm.... hey rockstar,

Unless you are listening to all of the music YOU have composed and performed yourself, you already are allowing an external party control what you listen to.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm certainly not trying to disabuse anyone.

You're being quite the douchebag here and trying to make it sound like everyone else is on your side isn't helping.

Re:who streams music?

[nanoflower]

How are they screwed? Any of them can choose to use one of the many other streaming sites available (Pandora, Last.fm, etc.) regardless of what happens with Imeem. Plus I'm sure all of them have their own Album/CD/MP3 collection that they can listen to should their Internet access be lost for some reason. Using a streaming music service doesn't take away from the ability to have your own music collection.

Re:who streams music?

[Voyager529]

Yes. And vinyl.

Re:who streams music?

[TangoMargarine]

tagno25 + gmhowell = 2
"we" = plural
plural >= 2
Q.E.D.

Re:who streams music?

[manyxcxi]

I have hundreds of gigs of MP3s, most of which is meticulously organized. I don't think I've listened to an MP3 in months. I listen to Pandora all the time, and even in the car (jesus phone) when I'm around town because all the bridges/overpasses/trees can make Sirius skip/break up momentarily. I've been a member of Pandora for at least 5 or 6 years and it still manages to find me new music I haven't heard of and I end up loving the music it recommends. The only thing that irks me is the (somewhat) new 40 hr/month limit.

Re:who streams music?

[TempeTerra]

Just from interest... When I buy things online I'm always (possibly unduly) worried about receiving stolen goods and promoting petty crime. When I see an ad for shrinkwrapped goods I assume the seller nicked them from the store where they work. My experience of record stores is that they would do as you; replace the 3c plastic case and carry on.

I don't mean to sound accusatory, just wondering if other people think the same way I do.

In other news, isn't it funny how many people lose the charger for their iPod/PSP then try and sell them online?

Re:who streams music?

[NoPantsJim]

It's a valid concern, but most of the people I've bought cds from specialize in this sort of thing, ie buying up albums that couldn't be sold in store for one reason or another and then reselling at a profit. All of them had feedback scores high enough that it seems implausible that they could be stealing everything they sell and still managing to get away with it.

Re:who streams music?

[TheCycoONE]

Didn't you hear? Indie has become too trendy, mainstream is the new hipster music.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame Murdoch and myspace? They didn't have to take imeem offline during the transition.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably didn't even paid for your HUNDREDS OF GIGS OF MP3s thats why you don't care about most of what you got.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

For the love of God... stop yelling "Freebird" when you watch bands.

Re:who streams music?

[pwfffff]

How many music streaming services as big as Imeem have died? Are you still able to access streaming music?

How many hard drives full of music have crashed and burned? Are they still able to access their files?

Using this freakish edge case doesn't prove your point either way.

Now go ahead and call me a dumbass and repeat the exact point you've already stated twice. We're waiting.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

It takes a couple of minutes one time and never again. Streaming hordes all of your bandwidth every single time you use it.

Streaming fails.

Re:who streams music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, here we go. You're too much of a buster to even come up with your own bags, you had to bite from someone else.

That makes you an even bigger loser than the kids who "drew" that little cartoon.

Re:who streams music?

[BrentH]

128kbit a lot of bandwidth? In Africa maybe.

This Sucks

[Conchobair]

I work behind a firewall and I can't install or upload music files. This was my wonderful go to on a shitty day of work, that I could listen to anything from Nirvana to Ennio Morricone, from NWA to Neil Young.. for the love of god someone, do you have something that is just as good?

Re:This Sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a ton of sites that are much better than imeem, but the one i've really started to like is grooveshark.com. lots of people like last.fm or spotify, but grooveshark lets me listen to any song ondemand, without downloading an external app, which is a must for listening to music at work.

Re:This Sucks

[cffrost]

https://thepiratebay.org/music

Leave Pandora Alone!

[cowtamer]

Really. Does the name not mean anything??? :)

Re:Leave Pandora Alone!

[gmhowell]

Judging by the lack of replies, I'm guessing /. posters are not well versed in the classics.

Re:Leave Pandora Alone!

[zullnero]

Or else they are, and just don't care about the reference enough to bother replying. Doesn't seem like the kinda place for heated discussions about Greek myth.

Re:Leave Pandora Alone!

[temcat]

OK, "imeem" means "we have" in Russian, so what?

Re:Leave Pandora Alone!

[imakemusic]

It's ok, you can download it - it doesn't come in a box.

Re:Leave Pandora Alone!

[csartanis]

You're right, I thought this was somehow related to the "Leave Britney alone!" guy.

Yet another free business going bust

[AcidPenguin9873]

Business charges $0 for its product, runs out of cash due to lack of viable revenue. Details at 11.

Unless you're Google and can sell tons of ads, "free" is not going to survive.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[Dumnezeu]

Business charges $0 for its product, runs out of cash due to lack of viable revenue. Details at 11.

Unless you're Google and can sell tons of ads, "free" is not going to survive.

Yes, I'm sure that none of those millions of websites that survive only by ads revenue will go down any day now, including one of my pet projects that hasn't been updated since last year and still generates over $200/month from [non-Google] ad clicks.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[Sylak]

Actually, iMeem had a VIP service it charged for, as well as a cut of music purchased through the site through the stores it linked to.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[c.r.o.c.o]

That's the perks of being omnipotent, you earn cash out of thin air. But I was hoping that God* made more than $200/month in revenue from any one of his ventures.

*Parent's user ID...

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[N0Man74]

Yeah, remember that old technology they tried where they used to broadcast electromagnetic waves into the air and allow people to use archaic devices called "Radios" to pick up the signal and listen to music? They didn't charge the listeners and it was a total flop. Nobody even remembers it anymore.

It's impossible to have a business model that involves not charging the users of a service a subscription fee.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[Anonymous Coward]

$200 isn't enough to buy a week's worth of groceries.

In any case, internet advertising is going to drop off once ad-blocking becomes more popular. Annoying the shit out of people is a stupid business plan, and once people realize they don't have to put up with it, they'll stop putting up with it. Just like they do with spam.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[tagno25]

$200 isn't enough to buy a week's worth of groceries.

It is plenty, where I live you can buy a week's worth of groceries for four for ~$150.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[AcidPenguin9873]

Your sarcasm is more accurate than you think.

Broadcast media is funny - someone else controls the content, and they control the ads. As a result, broadcasters can reasonably guarantee that an ad would be seen by a certain number of people at a certain time, and the advertisers pay a premium for that opportunity.

A service like Imeem, with its on-demand, user-controlled content/playlists, is much more dynamic, and as a result, much more difficult to get a wide audience for any particular ad. The result is that ads for services like this don't cost as much, and thus bring in less revenue for the broadcaster. So the analogy to traditional ad-supported broadcast media is not quite right at best, and completely wrong at worst.

The problem for the future of ad-supported free content is that other than for live or near-live events (like a daily news program), broadcast media is dying. Broadcast media is not controlled by the end user, and end users want on-demand, I-control-the-content services. The traditional way to make that work was to make people pay for the *content*. Sell them CDs or MP3s or DVDs, and they can do what they want with them, watch them whenever, etc. I have yet to see someone make that viewer/consumer model work with ad-supported content.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[drsquare]

Maybe $200 a month isn't a lot when you're actually paying for content. You know, like licencing all that music. Internet ad revenue is pitiful.

Re:Yet another free business going bust

[icebraining]

Same here. And a couple years ago it would buy even more, when $200 was worth more than 135.

Rhapsody?

[cbhacking]

Unless there's another Rhapsody in the world of online music, it's already owned and operated by RealNetworks. Am I missing something, is Real finally en route to a long-overdue end, are they looking to sell Rhapsody, or is the summary just including pointless BS as usual?

I actually tried Rhapsody for a while... it's not bad as a subscriber, but for free online music I'll stick with Pandora, thanks.

Re:Rhapsody?

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting off topic here..
My family uses the paid version of Rhapsody. For ~$15/month you can get the Rhapsody to go option. It allows three different funtions

Offline
You can "authorize" 3 computers and 3 portable devices. Devices that are "authorized" can play the downloaded music offline. The "offline" device must check in to Rhapsody every 30 days to renew the license. It is unlimited downloads, if you have the space on your device, you can download it. We use this to fill up our mp3 players (each can have its own music)
Stream
You can stream to any computer through the Rhapsody web site. We don't really use this but I just tried it with my laptop with Ubuntu and Firefox and it worked fine. The advantage of using Rhapsody for live streaming is you can pick what ever you want to listen too from their entire collection and make playlists and save them in your online account if you want. Pandora and other streaming sites decide what to play for you, maybe not specifically what you want to hear. I'm not knocking Pandora at all, I use it all of the time and have hit the monthly time limit for free access a few times. I also frequent other genre specific stations as well. Just that with Rhapsody, you can pick and choice exactly what you want to hear or play genre based streams.
Purchase
They have the option to purchase songs/album for about the same price as iTunes.

All of that being said.. I think Rhapsody can be a decent deal for some people.

Tried by IP address

[iamapizza]

Going by 208.72.33.133 in the hosts file doesn't help either, you get a 503. But then, I hadn't really ever used imeem before, so I don't know what I'm getting worked up about.

Sweet

[HisOmniscience]

This site was great for trying out artists after a Pandora suggestion. Guess I'll have to go back to torrents for trying out new artists.

Re:Sweet

[tonycheese]

Yes, because MySpace buying a site and transferring it over to them is great justification to start illegally pirating music.

Is your music taste some kind of weird obscure music that's actually easier to find on torrents than on youtube or one of the 20 other music sites?

Re:Sweet

[HisOmniscience]

1. Imeem was one of the few sites that let users listen to specific artists, not "stations."
2. Both Youtube and Myspace are shitty.
3. Who said anything about me starting to illegally download (it's not piracy) music? I already do that, but this site was a great way to avoid doing that.

Re:Sweet

[Fearan]

You can try out Grooveshark. It does what imeem did, but better.

Re:Sweet

[courtarro]

I'll keep the suggestions flowing: I love last.fm for its ability to help me find (and listen to) new music. It even offers a dedicated client that doesn't require an open browser window all day.

Re:Sweet

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, the music business needs to stop seeing internet music as an indirect way to get venture capital and realise that they're competing against p2p

Too late for for me to be upset..

[dbcad7]

I had already dropped imeem in favor of Slacker.

Ever heard of the "lameness filter"?

[Anonymous Coward]

They've tried. It's called the lameness filter. Basically, it ends up banning people from posting example code while the trolls have their 100% alphanumeric ASCII art of goatse.

So no, the filtering doesn't work very well.

I never liked it, anyway.

[adolf]

I've been using my new Android phone for all manner of streaming audio in the car, and really enjoying the hell out of it. But I can't say that I miss imeem.

Sarcasm aside...

[N0Man74]

The problem with a business like Pandora struggling is not it couldn't make it's model work originally, but the fact that new regulations were put in place to stop it from working.

In the US, we actually tried to create regulations to prevent music publishers from paying radio stations to play their songs for free to listeners. The funny thing is that they find ways to skirt these rules and pay the radio stations anyway.

On the other hand, they trying to stop internet radio at all stops and squeeze them harder for royalties than what even traditional radio broadcasters had to pay per audience member. (At least that's how it was looking the last time I checked, unless this was changed!).

The industry is losing relevance, attacking it's customers, it's promoters, takes their products that have diminished demand and then make them even less appealing by putting in even more restrictions, hijacking not just our media but our media playing devices, and then they have the audacity to start blaming everyone but themselves for losing market share.

They are so out of touch...

isn't that a bit sketchy?

[Trepidity]

Clearly MySpace+Imeem doesn't form a monopoly in the area, so I can see why there'd be no reason to block the purchase. But don't companies that purchase their competitors have to at least pretend to be doing it for some reason other than simply to shut down and thereby get rid of a competitor? If the sole reason for buying a competitor is to get rid of them, isn't that roughly equivalent to paying them to leave a particular market, which would be illegal?

Re:isn't that a bit sketchy?

[Aladrin]

MySpace says they are transferring all the playlists over as well, as well as the users... So they bought them for their customer list, which is legal as far as I know.

Re:isn't that a bit sketchy?

[nobodyknowsimageek]

So they bought them for their customer list, which is legal as far as I know.

Not only is this legal, there are numerous examples. This particular case appears to have been executed somewhat clumsily, which is hardly shocking considering how MySpace is run.

Re:isn't that a bit sketchy?

[MacWiz]

don't companies that purchase their competitors have to at least pretend to be doing it for some reason other than simply to shut down and thereby get rid of a competitor?

The four major labels already have abandoned any pretense of competition through their joint ventures, like MySpace Music and Vevo.

Besides, it's just independent artists. Some of this music has been around the block several times, originating from the original mp3.com and GarageBand, through iLike and iMeem.

The RIAA can do whatever they want to us to keep us out of the market, or exploit our music for their own gain, whichever is most convenient for them. We have no voice and, even if we did, the DOJ is staffed by ex-RIAA attorneys, making it very unlikely that any action will be taken against the RIAA for anything at all, at least for the next 7 years.

yeah but

[commodoresloat]

imeem was kind of cool.

Of course, no more. I'm sure "Tom" will put an end to that.

guy man

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's obvious that most /. users just download their fav new cutting edge music either from that band's own website for a modest and fair fee, or hit up their fav torrent site if their fav band happens to be an unfortunate signee of the RIAA.

Re:guy man

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. While some of us (myself included in this) may torrent or legally download music, there's those of us (again, myself included in this) that still like to have the actual CD. And for several reasons. Tool, for example, I wouldn't want some of their CDs downloaded. The artwork on the cover is worth some extra money (and many are just much better looking to have the actual thing for the artwork; Tool's 10,000 Days is a perfect example of this by all means). I feel the same way of other bands as well. Also, whether the artists actually get money from the album or not, their ratings (consider Gold, Platinum,etc. records) are influenced by the record sales. So, to support a band I like, and get the bonus of the additional artwork, and having the actual CD in physical form (obviously doesn't matter to some, but it does to others of us as well), it's worth it to buy the CDs. Plus, having the whole CD is a good thing for some of us (I recognize this can even be offset by torrents having the bonus songs only released in certain areas in addition to the entire album, etc.).

All I'm really saying is, it makes sense to assume that what you say is not true. And regardless, this is streaming, which has its own set of advantages over any of the other options.

Myspace = airheads only

[AliasMarlowe]

For some reason many / most(?) of interesting new music bands choose to use Myspace as their homesite.

And where else will the bands (or their marketing managers) find such a large collection of malleable young airheads, all eager to be commanded what to think, what to buy, what to talk about, and what to do, so they'll appear all grown up and cool?

Re:Myspace = airheads only

[sznupi]

Yeah, supposedly the arguments "it was better" are mostly about feeling better past primetime...

Anyway, independents (not some genre; mode of action) are most plagued by the error of choosing Myspace. Local bands (yes, even in countries where Myspace doesn't exist otherwise), real jobs, no managers, little side money from small number of CDs & concerts.

Re:Myspace = airheads only

[schon]

And where else will the bands (or their marketing managers) find such a large collection of malleable young airheads, all eager to be commanded what to think, what to buy, what to talk about, and what to do, so they'll appear all grown up and cool?

Youtube.

Grooveshark

[Anonymous Coward]

My gf just showed me grooveshark about two weeks ago. I like it a lot more than imeem. Sucks that imeem just disappeared... that's what happens when murdoch buys you.

Google Music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone see a connection to the launch of Google Music last week, which relies heavily on Imeem for its content?

myspace sucks

[Snaller]

Or their website does.
The morons who hack it together (I don't want to use the word design) can't figure out they are supposed to serve pages up in the language the http header ASK FOR - instead the idiots just look at the IP and make a choice based on that.
("Oh but you can make an account and" - NO, I don't want to nor should i have to to make an account to get to a useable language (and how the heck would be able to register if they serve the page up in some weird language)

Re:myspace sucks

[aflag]

That same rant applies to google. It keeps trying to redirect you to their local servers. Even if you don't even speak the language of the country from where you accessing it. So you end up getting a load of useless (unreadable) results.

I'M SICK OF N_GGERS!!!

[GameboyRMH]

I just can't stand n_ggers...worst kind of person to have to deal with, I swear...

Re:I'M SICK OF N_GGERS!!!

[GameboyRMH]

Bwahaha! One whoosh so far!

In other news

[Locke2005]

My workplace has blocked all audio streaming services, as they were using up too much of the company network's bandwidth. At home, I have 80GB of mp3s, enough to play for 40 days without any repeats. Of what use are audio streaming services to me?

Amazing

[SmallFurryCreature]

Nobody invented MP3 players in your area?

Rhapsody is owned by Real Networks

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose it could be next, but I doubt it.

Crap

[slimjim8094]

Yeah, I figured that out last night. It was great; if I wanted to hear a song I'd just go to Imeem and type it in. It played the music I wanted, not the music it thinks I wanted.

At least Myspace seems to have full songs, but their interface is shit.

Oh well, back to Gnutella I guess... which is a shame. I didn't want to screw around with a website in order to hear a song - Imeem let me just play it. I bought so much music because I'd been listening to the song for a few days, and it was easier to buy it than rip it from the client.

They made it easier than pirating, but oh well.

stupid myspace

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck! imeem.com was an awesome service...now it's shit! myspace is a piece of crap with dumbass IT and programmers!!! ugh!!!

Re:stupid myspace

[DogAlmity]

Second that. Imeem was the shizzle.

saw this coming

[ILuvRamen]

I remember when all imeem did was stream music. Then they added all those stupid social networking and profile modifications to make it more like Myspace. Everyone was complaining that it was turning into Myspace. Then surprise, surprise, they literally turn into Myspace. Who didn't see this coming? Maybe if they'd have spent some development time on making their site stable instead of making it cute and adding stupid features, they wouldn't have ended this way. I guarantee Myspace isn't going to revive it in any remotely similar form. They're just going to reroute playlists to to the bands' pages and that's it.