imeem is exclusively streaming deluxe editions of U2’s first three albums, Boy (1980), October (1981) and War (1983) starting today. The albums include a wealth of b-sides, live tracks and rarities plus video excerpts of live TV performances by the band from the early ‘80s. imeem is the only place you can check out the albums prior to their North American release on July 22, 2008.

It gives you an inside look into the evolution of the band and shaping of what would become the U2 sound. All three albums were produced by Steve Lillywhite who is actually back in the studio with U2 at work on their next album. Can't wait.

http://www.imeem.com/u2music

imeem now allows you to tag your friends in photos! Just look for the tag icon in the box below each photo and click to start tagging your friends. Each of your friends can only be tagged once in a photo and they can remove the tag if they wish.

You will be able to see photos tagged of you by going to the photo tab in your profile and clicking on the 'Photos of Me' tab on the right hand side. You will be notified by email if you have been tagged in a photo, or if you own a photo that has been tagged.

This is just the first release of photo tagging, and there will be more functionality to come. Enjoy!

Kristin

Remember, you must be logged in to tag photos!

It’s funny how the boundaries of a city help define a signature sound and style that can coalesce into a full blown local cultural movement. We wanted to take an in-depth look into local hip hop scenes across the country from hip hop’s birthplace in New York down to trapstars in the Dirty South all the way out to the West where it still feels good to be a gangster.

Today, imeem is launching Keys to the City, a new program designed to paint a multimedia picture of the sights and sounds of a city’s hip hop music scene as told through the eyes of one of its most popular artists. Every other month, we will be featuring a city where a distinctive hip hop scene has emerged, such as Philly, Atlanta, L.A., Seattle, and New York. We’ll offer artist-guided video tours, original mixes from local DJs, music playlists featuring hometown artists, behind the scenes photos from local venues, and much, much more.

The first episode, Keys to the City D.C., is hosted by the rap Ambassador to the Capitol, Wale. After stirring up noise regionally with radio singles, “Nike Boots” and “Ice Cream Girl,” Wale caught the attention of Mark Ronson, who recently signed him to a joint venture deal with Interscope.

Keys to the City D.C. is an inside look into the city that gave birth to this emerging superstar with exclusive video of Wale, original interviews from AllHipHop.com, an exclusive DJ Mix from the One Nation Hip Hop radio show and a Keys to the City playlist from burgeoning hip hop blog, illroots.com. Get down with D.C. on this first edition of Keys to the City and let us know about your local music scene.

- Will from the music team

Who likes videos? We like videos!

We're happy to bring you the new and improved Featured Video Page. Check it out:
http://www.imeem.com/videos/

Brand new to the page, we've got daily trivia for you to test your music video knowledge. You can use it to make your bff all wtf.
Bigger thumbnails for your clicking enjoyment.
Video of The Day - same as always, one of our favorite videos that we want to share with you.
A nice spot for imeem's video partners, so you can get to know some great content providers.

So be sure to bookmark the video page and check back daily. Muchos besos, mes amis!

Hello imeem,

Happy new year. I have some great news to share. We recently announced an agreement with Universal Music Group, which is the world’s largest music company. Under the agreement, imeem users get to upload, stream and share music and video from Univeral’s catalogue for free through imeem.

What does this mean for you? It means that when you’re on imeem, you can check out full-length songs and videos from more of the artists you care about – people like Kanye West, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Wu-Tang Clan, Gwen Stefani, Amy Winehouse, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent, and Black Eyed Peas. When you find something you like, you can playlist it, tag it, rate it, comment on it, and discover music you might like by finding other imeem users who are into the same things you are.

We also recently secured a similar deal with EMI Music. Some of the artists on EMI include Radiohead, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, 30 Seconds to Mars, Norah Jones, Interpol, KT Tunstall, Daft Punk, Joss Stone, the Beastie Boys.

This means that imeem now has deals done with all 4 major music labels in the U.S., as well as a number of independent labels and video providers. This took a lot of blood, sweat and tears (and the better part of the last 18 months) to accomplish, but it’s been worth it. It’s great to know we’re continuing to make big strides in giving imeem users the full-length streaming you’ve been demanding, and doing so in a way that ensure that artists get paid, too, thanks to the advertising on our site.

We at imeem are proud to be offering a cool site that offers all the music and video you love, while working hand-in-hand with labels and artists. Now that all of this is done, we truly have the largest, most vibrant and interactive playlist community on the Internet.

Thanks for sticking with us, and if you know people that haven’t been on imeem in a few months, make a playlist for them and let them know that as of now we have the largest legal full-song streaming site on the Internet.

Dalton

P.S.
At the moment most of our deals are for allowing full-song streams to imeem members in the U.S. and Canada. International users shouldn't worry, we are working hard on securing the same rights for our members in other countries.

Ever since junior high, I’ve been a huge Led Zeppelin fan. Every weekday on K-Rock in New York, I would listen faithfully to Get The Led Out hoping to hear the DJ play “Hey, Hey What Can I Do” or “Traveling Riverside Blues.” Now after all the years of being a fan I’m finally getting a chance to work with the band to help promote their new release “Mothership” and put together a pretty cool contest on imeem.

We’re looking for real Zep heads to create trivia and polls to send out to their friends and all music fans on imeem. The most popular poll is going to win a cool prize pack featuring a Cherry SG Epiphone guitar and the entire Led Zeppelin music and video catalog along with limited edition posters, buttons and stickers!

All you have to do a create a poll and share it with your friends. If you’re not familiar with the Cherry SG Epiphone guitar, then take a look at all the live footage we have of Zeppelin playing Kashmir, Immigrant Song, Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog and others at amazing venues like Royal Albert Hall, Earl’s Court and Madison Square Garden.

Check out the contest on the Led Zep imeem channel and start Getting The Led Out to all your friends. The contest runs until December 12.

We are extremely excited to announce that we have partnered with Sony BMG to provide FULL LENGTH streaming music and video on imeem starting today in North America.

Sony BMG has the second largest music collection in the world and represents some of the imeem community’s most popular artists, including, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Chris Brown, John Legend, Modest Mouse, Beyonce, Sean Kingston and more. This is the real deal.

I know there are a lot of people out there complaining about 30-second samples like it's some kind of conspiracy to make the site lame. That’s actually the opposite of the truth. To allow all of you to post and stream music, we have to get permission from the artists and record labels that worked hard to create and develop the music (and most importantly own the music). We are out there every day hustling to turn on as much content as we can. We know that full songs make the site more fun to use. Show us some support for going out there and trying to build a business and do the right thing by artists, labels and ourselves. Seriously, we want full song streams as bad as you do!

We are going to keep getting deals done, so check out some of the fantastic music we turned on, build some new playlists, and keep the faith.

Our new cool video player is out!

With our true full screen mode you won't have to stay a couple inches away from your computer screen to enjoy your favorite videos. So make sure to upgrade your flash player if you don't see the option!

Click here to upgrade your flash player:

We've also increased the size of the screen in our video pages. Go check it out!
http://www.imeem.com/videos

I am incredibly happy to report that we have reached a deal with Warner Music Group that allows us to stream the full length versions of Warner music and video to imeem members in the United States. Their content is available on the site right now.

Some of the hundreds of artists now available include:

T.I.
Diddy
Notorious BIG
Madonna
Death Cab For Cutie
The Doors
The White Stripes
Muse
Flaming Lips
R.E.M.
Bjork
Smashing Pumpkins


We at IMEEM are doing our best to build a cool website that’s fun for you as well as makes sure artists GET PAID. I hope you guys are all as excited as I am to have this great content up on the site.

Keep the faith, there’s more to come!