Music website iLike launched new features, including full song playback and a self-serve advertising platform. The company now claims 30 million users and seeks to enable them to listen full songs instead of 30 second samples as was the case until now. The full track streaming is offered through a partnership with Rhapsody.
iLike, which receives private funding from contributors including Ticketmaster, Khosla Ventures, Bob Pittman and others, also announced an ad platform aimed at concert promoters, artists and bands, enabling them to target users based on several criteria such as music taste and location.
iLike can be accessed via its website iLike.com and through its applications for the most prominent social networks, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and hi5. As of now, the full track streaming is only available on the website, but it will work with the applications soon. ILike also features a sidebar that is used with Apple's iTunes.
Artists get paid each time somebody listens to their stuff. There's a limit of 25 tracks that each user can listen to for free each month. More precisely, iLike members can listen to one entire song 25 times, or 25 different songs entirely, after which they'll get an invitation for a Rhapsody subscription if they want more.
Rival music site Last.fm's users will enjoy free, global, on-demand access to the largest licensed catalogue of music built on partnerships with all four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI. Last.fm has signed a similar deal with 150,000 independent labels and artists. But there is also a limit. All tracks can be streamed for free up to three times each. After that, the listener will be invited to buy the song from iTunes, Amazon or 7 Digital.