We’ve confirmed PaidContent’s report from earlier today that music startup Imeem has laid off 20 employees, or 25% of its total staff.
PR representative Matt Graves gave a now-familiar explanation for the cuts:
Given the current economic climate, we decided to be proactive in cutting costs – before we needed to – for the long-term benefit of the business.
The company did not confirm reports that Montgomery & Co. has been hired to find it a buyer. That wouldn’t be terribly surprising, however, given the direction Imeem’s US traffic has been heading:
Traffic appears to have peaked at 7 million unique visitors in July only to fall precipitously to 4.9 million uniques in September. This puts Imeem back to where it stood in April traffic-wise.
International traffic has also taken a dip, although not as dramatically, with about 3 million uniques lost between July and August alone:
The reasons for Imeem’s cuts may be mixed: girding oneself for bleak economic conditions, readjusting performance expectations, and (as Paid Content suggests) shifting focus away from technical development and towards marketing. Whatever the reasons, Imeem’s surviving staff members have their work cut out for them; the free music streaming space is getting hot with competition from MySpace, iLike, Lala, and possibly Facebook as well.
Imeem, a Sequoia Company, has been added to our ongoing Layoff Tracker.
Imeem is still blocked in Turkey. So that probably accounts for 1-2M uniques already
Not sure why they don’t try to get unblocked.
Why are they blocked in Turkey?
50+ sites were closed for TR copyright violations (TR artists) most sites managed to get back online within a day. But Imeem is still off in Turkey for all I know.
1-www.muzikhaber.bloggum.com
2-www.btboard.net
3-www.forum.emuzikdinle.com
4-www.idealmp3.info
5-www.sanalhazine.org
6-www.serdarortac.org
7-www.sevgimboard.net
8-www.aslarmuzik.com
9-www.cayport.org
10-www.geyikhane.org
11-www.gnctrkfrm.com
12-www.hemenidri.org
13-www.indir.inndir.com
14-www.klasturk.com
15-www.mp3indir.bloggum.com
16-www.ortakmekan.net
17-www.pilotmp3.com
18-www.turkceklip.biz
19-www.asimmp3.net
20-www.crazyshark74.blospot.com
21-www.filmperdesi.com
22-www.forumbyturks.com
23-www.forumstar.com
24-www.indirsmp3.com
25-www.izlesene.com
26-www.mp3evin.com
27-www.mp3yurdu.org
28-www.super-turk.com
29-www.swllw.blogspot.com
30-www.video-klipleri.com
31-www.vidivodo.com
32-www.wareziz.biz
33-www.arkakapak.net
34-www.forumsahil.org
35-www.hakantasiyan.org
36-www.indirecek.bloggum.com
37-www.klip-indir-izle-blogspot.com
38-www.korsanforum.net
39-www.mp3-dunyasi.org
40-www.mp4divwtr.com
41-www.muslumgurses.org
42-www.mutilcesi.net
43-www.bambaska.org
44-www.herkez.net
45-www.imeem.com
46-www.indirfull.com
47-www.indirge.com
48-www.mekancafe.org
49-www.mp3indiriver.blogspot.com
50-www.muslumgurses.net
51-www.muziksitesi.be
52-www.webulbblog.com
SAVCI BU SİTELERİN KAPATILMASINA KARAR VERDİ
Beyoğlu Cumhuriyet Savcısı Nihat Erdem, Mü-Yap’ın avukatlarının yaptığı başvuru üzerine sözkonusu 52 sitenin ücretsiz olarak müzik eserlerinin dağıtım, yayım ve çoğaltma hizmeti verdiğinin tespit edildiğini gerekçe göstererek 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanununun 5101 Sayılı Korsanlıkla Mücadele Yasası ile yapılan değişiklik sonucu getirilen prosedürün yerine getirilmesini de gözönüne alarak kapatma kararını verdi. Kapatma kararında şöyle denildi:
“Yukarıda isimleri ve adresleri belirtilen web sitelerinde bulunan ve yasa dışı olarak dağıtılan, yayımlanan ve çoğaltılan tüm müzik yapım ve yapıtlarının, herhangi bir formatta internet kullanıcıları tarafından, ulaşılmasının, dinlEnmesinin ve bunların bireysel kullanıcıların bilgisayarına ve cep telefonlarına indirilmesinin, karar tarihinden itibaren üç gün içinde ENGELLENMESİNE,
Bu yönde, Türkiye’de faaliyet gösteren web sitelerine servis sağlayan tüm internet servis sağlayıcılarının karar tebliğinden itibaren 3 gün içinde İNTERNET ALANI SAĞLAMA VE HER TÜRLÜ ARACILIK HİZMETLERİNİN DURDURLMASINA, karar verildi.”
We knew this was going to happen..
LaLa.com may have potential.
Check out http://www.fuckedstartups.com for more details
How much of this is based on Facebook taking a crack at the online music business?
I’m sure they are just trying to get “skinny” so they look more attractive to a potential buyer.
it is cute how you know absolutely nothing.
Maybe because new albums aren’t generally released in the summer.
I’m really puzzled by imeem, Pandora and other online music services that are cutting staff & claiming a doomsday scenario due to an imposing cost structure while not utilizing all the obvious ad revenue models available to them. While display ads, affiliate revenue for iTunes purchases and branded sponsorships are great, the bulk of the user experience on these sites is tied to audio consumption, engagement, and sharing. Thus, AUDIO ads are an obvious revenue source that needs to be contemplated – the advertiser demand is out there based on the $20 bil being spent on radio ads.
It’s time for the revenue model to fit the medium. NBC television network’s core ad unit is a VIDEO ad. NY Times core ad unit is the PRINT ad – the ad format needs to match the listener’s engagement in order to be effective. Online, Hulu runs VIDEO ads next to online TV shows & clips, Google runs LEAD GENERATION ads next to user search results, online fashion magazines run gorgeous DISPLAY ads & takeovers next to fashion displays, etc, etc.
As an avid user of imeem and Pandora, I understand the tradeoff – listen to a few ads passively in return for enjoying my favorite music on demand, something I’ve NEVER been able to do before. In return for that small tradeoff, my favorite online music services can make enough money to ensure that they’re still around in a year so that I don’t have to go back to listening to an AM/FM radio at work like I did back in the 90s.
Imeem has been going downhill the past few months. I don’t know why (I haven’t cared enough to look into it) but 80% of my music lists now contain 30 second clips instead of the full song. I’m not going to listen to samples all day – their services is very sweet. But they are deviating from the successful business model – probably from RIAA pressure or something. I thought they had a deal with like 4 major record labels – if so wtf? For now I say screw’em – I’m listening to http://www.seeqpod.com – I bet they are doing well as they just started adding more ads – which I don’t mind because I can’t hear them anyway
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Ever consider that blocking the ads might be causing tracks to only appear as clips?
Have heard reliably that you can genBook to list of companies that have run out of money are trying to scramble. Ugly time for tech, even with a decent monetization strategy.
The competition in the online music industry is tight and every wrong move could bring down a website’s traffic.
A negative comment from a well-known website could either drive up or down the reviewed website.
Imeem is good but there are still alot of untouched websites better than it.