Imeem frustrates me!

A few years back, I connected with Imeem and praised their efforts to allow us to share, create playlists. Imeem reach out to us @ DancehallSoca and offer us a FREE VIP membership. They launched a mobile app and things seem to be moving in the right direction. A while back, I started to notice that Imeem made policy changes to only play songs for 30 seconds.

Change stated here: "When you find a song on imeem that is a 30-second preview, it means that the artist or record label that has registered the song in our database has not approved full-length streaming for our users. Consistent with copyright fair use principles, the song will be streamed to you as a 30-second preview. If you already have the song on your computer, upload it to your imeem profile and listen to it full-length. You can always listen to entire songs that you’ve uploaded to imeem; they will not be converted to 30-second previews. If you do not have the song on your computer, you can buy it on iTunes or Amazon.com Just so you know, there are already millions of songs on imeem that we have permission to stream at full-length. We are constantly working with labels and artists around the world to add more, and we are adding thousands of songs each day. Stay tuned!"

I had no problem with this new policy change until I noticed that songs we had @ DancehallSoca that was exclusive to us, was being played for only thirty seconds. Their policy clearly stated "it means that the artist or record label that has registered the song in our database." We never registered any songs with Imeem and this is what frustrates me. The new policy is less about the artistes and more about Imeem bringing the traffic to their website. In the beginning they had the link for purchase through Itunes and Amazon, that was ok with me. However, what use is Imeem if songs can only be played for 30 seconds. I also noticed that there were some Kitchener and Byron Lee songs not being played for 30 seconds, while others were. This is inconsistent with their stated policy.

Here is how I think Imeem will be less frustrating.

1. Allow songs to be played fully. Is it less illegal to play entire song on Imeem site but not other sites?

2. Set up affiliate programs-Allow publishers to sell music approved by artistes, record companies through their websites.

3. We loved you when you first started, your focus was the end user. Go back to your old approach, let those who want to listen, listen and let those who want to purchase do so.

4. If we like you, we will all promote the hell out of your product. If you frustrate us, we slowly start to move away from using your product.