Two months ago, Warner Music Group (WMG) filed suit against Imeem for copyright infringement. Now the suit has been dropped, and – get this – the two companies have announced a strategic partnership through which “WMG’s world-class catalog of popular audio and video content will be made available . . . for interactive, on-demand streaming on imeem’s free, ad-supported service.”
That’s according to a press release posted on Imeem itself. That’s also after, back in May, Warner called Imeem “no innocent infringer.” It would seem there’s been a shift in opinion.
“This deal provides an opportunity to unleash the value of music on one of the world’s leading social networks by giving fans an environment where they can discover and share new music,” explains Alex Zubillaga, WMG’s Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy and Business Development, in the release.
And he’s not kidding about that “unleash” bit – Wikipedia lists almost 250 artists that fall under the WMG label, and this includes mega bands like Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica.
Zubillaga then continues, “It also opens the door for imeem and WMG to develop new strategies and products that will help introduce a more vibrant media marketplace to the social networking environment.” Assuming, of course, that neither side reverses its attitude (again) sixty days from now.
As for the specifics of this deal, most details remain unknown, but VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall reports, “Warner . . . will get a piece of imeem’s ad revenue.” Marshall also notes, “This partnership . . . is the first time a major label has offered free ad-supported access to it entire catalog of music and video to such an online sharing site.”
