14 DAY TRIAL // Online music streaming site imeem has been struggling to survive as its current business model has proved less than successful. Just last week the site removed user-generated photos and videos in a cash saving move. And now, as TechCrunch reports, it started offering links to buy the streamed music from its own store along with the regular iTunes and Amazon options.
The feature is still in very early testing phase and rough around the edges; as such, it is currently available for a small number of artists. Imeem offers the songs for $0.99 and the option to buy the entire album. There is no distribution method at the moment as the site offers direct downloads through your browser. Still, the company has confirmed that the feature will become widespread; however, it will keep the options of buying from either iTunes or Amazon.
Imeem is still trying to find a profitable business model, as are most online music streaming services, and recently went through rough times as debt and lack of income threatened the company with closure. At one point it couldn't continue to pay the large amounts of money the big four music labels charged, accumulating a $4 million debt with Warner Music alone.
Warner is an investor in imeem and, at the time, wrote down its investment of $16 million plus the $4 million in debt. Since then though the label has decided to give the company another chance and renegotiated the licensing deal. The new agreement meant that imeem was paying less for the music but it also meant that it could stay alive. Less money is better than no money, the label apparently thought.
Things aren't exactly thriving now but the new music store might give the company a fighting chance. It currently takes a 5 percent affiliate fee, around 5 cents for most transactions, for every purchase its users make from iTunes or Amazon. With the new store though it may get as much as $0.30 for every song, which is what the major online music stores get. Likely, though, it has settled for less to get the labels to allow it to sell the music directly but that would still amount to a bigger sum than it is currently making.