• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 10, 2007

Social networking site imeem has struck a deal with Universal Music Group to stream tracks from the label's vast music catalog, the companies announced today.

The site's members can now upload UMG-owned content, and all users can stream the clips. But visitors still can't easily download tracks to their hard drives or play them on iPods.

UMG will receive a fraction of a cent each time a user listens to one of the songs and also a cut of any ad revenue linked to particular songs, according to The Wall Street Journal.

With this deal imeem now has access to the libraries of the major four record labels. That state of affairs marks a big change from earlier this year, when the site didn't have deals with any major labels and was feuding with Warner, which sued the site for copyright infringement. Warner and imeem in July ultimately settled their differences and formed a partnership. Sony-BMG and EMI followed a few months later.

This new willingness to experiment with online media makes a huge amount of sense for the troubled record industry, which has yet to figure out the best way to distribute via the Web.

Overall, however, the relationship between social networking sites and record labels remains troubled. UMG's deal with imeem comes even as the record company's war with the much larger social networking MySpace continues. Last year, UMG sued that site for copyright infringement based on clips users uploaded to their MySpace pages. With that suit dragging on in court, UMG recently told artists that they can only stream 90-second samples of songs on the site.