imeem is an online music service that gives fans instant access to almost any song they want, for free.

The company, founded in 2003 by Dalton Caldwell, takes its name from “meme” - a term coined to describe the ideas that communities, adopt, and express.

imeem started as an instant messaging service that let people communicate through chat, blogging, instant messaging and sharing files. This model didn’t pan out, and in 2006, the company reinvented itself as a social networking site that let people discover, play and share music, music videos, and photos.

In September 2006, imeem introduced embeddable flash playlists that gave people the ability to take music and video playlists they created (or found) on the site and embed them virtually anywhere on the web. imeem’s players quickly became popular with consumers using MySpace and other social networks, giving them a way to customize & personalize their profiles with music.

imeem pioneered the ad-supported streaming music model. In 2007, the company became the first-ever online music site to secure licenses from all 4 major music labels (and thousands of indie labels and artists) to offer their music catalogues for free streaming and sharing on the web.

Under this model, artists and labels are paid a share of the imeem’s ad revenue in proportion to the popularity of their music on imeem, and have the right to register their content and determine how (or whether) that content is available on the site or through its embeddable widgets.

This business model is made possible by imeem’s proprietary content fingerprinting and digital registry technology. Initially, imeem licensed this technology from SNOCAP, the digital rights and content management startup founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning. In 2008, imeem acquired SNOCAP and its technology outright; as part of this acquisition, SNOCAP’s COO, Ali Aydar, joined imeem’s executive team.

In December 2009, imeem was acquired by MySpace for $1 million.