imeem music does not rock
Imeem Service seems flanking.
Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article
about Imeem, pegged to
the news that this fledgling site has signed a third major label, EMI, leaving
only Universal in the “not yet” column. The service is getting credit for trying
to pioneer a new business model for digital music distribution: users can select
songs and stream them for free, as long as they’re willing to sit through the
occasional advertisement.
I registered and fired the service up, and while
I’m not ready to call ad-supported music DOA, Imeem isn’t about to unseat the
current digital music leaders. The main problem: I don’t know what I’m supposed
to be doing on the site.
The registration process asked me to invite some
friends, so there’s obviously a social-networking aspect to it. But what would
those friends get? Access to my home page? Well, thanks, but I’ve already got a
blog and a MySpace and a Facebook page, all of which give me ample opportunity
to tell them about my favorite music.
OK, there’s a “music” heading–so
maybe I’ll browse some
music. Most of the artists on the front page aren’t tailored to my over-30
tastes, so I’ll run a search for my usual guinea pig, Pink Floyd. The results
are a complete mess: songs, videos, user playlists featuring Pink Floyd songs, a
Pink Floyd user group, a Dream Theater live medley featuring a cover of “In the
Flesh” (it’s
not bad!), and on and on. There’s no order, no organizing principle that I
can discern. What am I supposed to do with all this stuff?
