Imeem

imeem was a social media site that allowed users to upload and stream music and videos. 
It was adopted as a new fannish home by the Livejournal and other segments of the vidding community in 2006. Around this time Youtube was first taking off and vidders were increasingly concerned about losing control over their work or having it reposted without credit. imeem, less well-known but with good video quality, was influential in convincing live-action vidders to try streaming for the first time.
In June 2009, imeem announced that it would discontinue its video-hosting service in five days.dalton, Simplifying imeem, imeem blog. June 25, 2009. (accessed 31 December 2009) Site users were not at all pleased with either the decision or the five-day warning.Frederic Lardinois. imeem Wants to Simplify Its Service - Deletes All User-Generated Photos and Videos. on ReadWriteWeb, June 26, 2009. (accessed 2 April 2010) There was a flurry of blogging activity as vidders left the service and tried to find alternative sites to host their work.Morgan Dawn, Copyright Policies: Blip.TV, BAM Video Vault & Viddler (Updated 7/2/2009), posted to the Vidding LiveJournal community, 27 June 2009. (accessed 2 April 2010)vchrusch, Looks like Imeem is probably no longer vidder friendly, posted to the Vidding LiveJournal community, 25 June 2009. (accessed 2 April 2010);WayBack machine link. 
MySpace bought out imeem on December 8, 2009, closing down the service on the same day and redirecting all traffic to MySpace Music.Ryan Nakashima, MySpace buys imeem music site for under $1 mln, Associated Press, Dec 8, 2009par_avion, Out with a whimper, 23 March 2010. (accessed 2 April 2010)
Learn more about imeem on Wikipedia.
==First, a Little History About Streaming Fanvids==
imeem played a significant role in enticing segments of the media fandom vidding community into “coming out” and embracing the concept of online streaming access to their fanvids. By the early 2000s, fanvids had spread far across media and anime fandom as technology made vidding more accessible and affordable. This new generation of vidders saw streaming their fanvids online in places such as YouTube as a natural outgrowth of their online fandom activities.comment in the Streaming vs Downloads post at the vidding LJ community dated April 10, 2007; WayBack Machine link. 
However, to a small segment of media fandom vidding, the increased visibility of online vids continued to be met with skepticism and uncertainty. With fanvids borrowing from both music and video sources, there was a real and ever present concern that vidders would be subject to copyright take down notices and even litigation. One group of vidders was found primarily in Livejournal communities, although many in the group also operated out of mailing lists and forums. Each of these platforms allowed vidders some measure of controlling the access to and dissemination of their fanvids either through password protection, members’ only lists or forums and obscure Livejournal communities. 
Online streaming, in contrast, was open access with few if any controls. At the same time, the then-current video streaming technology gave some vidders pause as they did not like the (initial) low quality and jerky playback of streaming video sites. Vidders who spent days trying to time their edits to the beat of a song did not want to watch that effort be undermined by dropped frames and long buffering pauses.Even after imeem had come and gone, some vidders still felt that online streaming could not measure up to their standards: "I still haven't uploaded any vids to BAM. Their playback is 15 fps, and I can't see the point of spending the time uploading vids with fast cutting when I know it can't handle them. I haven't explored any other options, either, because I keep hearing about vidders being TOS'd and having vids taken down. laurashapiro suggested we start streaming on our own websites, but that entails technical wizardry to turn them into flash, then hoping your host doesn't dump you if you exceed your alotted bandwidth. So... %#@$*&!" comment in the Still bitter dated July 28, 2009; WayBack Machine link.
There were also perceived social divisions between groups of vidders. The anime and media fandom (or live action) vidders rarely crossed paths and often failed to acknowledge the other group existed. And within live action vidding, fans who came out of the VCR vidding tradition and who migrated to blogging platforms like Livejournal found themselves separated from the newer generation of vidders who entered vidding only during its digital era.One example of a digital/online vidding community was Reverie. The former group was more cautious in terms of vidding visibility while the latter group was more open to the concept – after all, online vidding was the only way they had ever known.
==2006: Streaming Fan Vids: Doubts and Fears==
That changed in 2006. Even though thousands of fan vids had been posted to YouTube, by 2006, the Livejournal vidding community relied on downloads to distribute their vids with the links being announced in private journals and blogging communities such as “vidding”. Private streaming was not an option for many vidders as both the technology and the personal resources to handle the increased streaming bandwidth remained out of individual reach.comment in the Streaming vs Downloads post at the vidding LJ community dated April 10, 2007; WayBack Machine link.There was also the impression that YouTube was too “risky” because of its increased visibility and YouTube’s ongoing efforts to limit the type of audio and video content being uploaded. In fact, between 2002 (when the vidding LJ community was created) and 2005, only 12 videos were posted with YouTube links – the bulk by one live action vidder aj2k. When YouTube was mentioned, it was often to complain about video or clip theft.
One fan posted: 
Another fan posted: 
Vidders also posted warnings about how YouTube would claim ownership of all your content: 
A vidder warned others: 
They then suggested that self-hosting with password protection was the "last best hope" for the vidding community.”1: YouTube. 2: The RIAA. 3: Our Last Best Hope post to the vidding LJ community dated 6-14-2006; WayBack machine link.
In August 2006, fan vidders gathered at Vividcon, an annual vidding convention in Chicago. While the topics of streaming fanvids and the increased risks of exposure and visibility were not among the panel discussions, the topics were something that the Vividcon vidders were very much aware of. 
In July 2006, someone had uploaded Killa and TJonesy’s Knights of the Round Table, a Star Trek/Monty Python vid, to YouTube without their permission and it was featured on metafilter, a well-known blog. This caused some consternation and debate among the LJ vidding community. More here dated July 19, 2006; Wayback Machine link. 
In August 2006, one vidder asked:
Responses varied from the negative:
To the cautious:
To the realistic:
A few posts did garner some positive feedback for YouTube
But on the whole this was a common exchange between vidders:
Still, the LJ vidding community was slowly becoming aware that the rest of the world was, in turn, slowly becoming aware of their activities. In Feb 2006, the Toronto Star published an article about slash video “mashups” titled “The Brokeback Effect” and linked to several fanvids.Toronto Star Discusses Fan Vids (With Focus On Slash) post the the vidding LJ community dated Feb 18, 2006; WayBack machine link.
Also in February 2006, long-time acafan Henry Jenkins wrote an essay on “To Watch A Fanvid” Henry was not the first acafan to write about fan vidding; Camille Bacon-Smith also discussed it in her 1992 book Enterprising Women. Henry himself discussed fan vidding in his book Textual Poachers also published in 1992.
==2006: Fan Vid Streaming Peeks Out From Behind the Curtain==
In November 2006, Henry Jenkins reached out to Laura Shapiro, a media fandom vidder to see if there was interest in representing fan vidding at an upcoming DIY (Do-It-Yourself) media festival. This festival was:
The response was positive and Laura Shapiro reported on the initial meeting here on December 2, 2006WayBack Machine link. and summarized her thoughts about the event on Dec 4:WayBack Machine link.
This led her to post her meta essay about Vidding and Visibility: You Can’t Stop The Signal:Wayback machine link.
==2006: Enter imeem==
Around the same time, live action vidder aj2k began posting about imeem, a new streaming site where he was hosting his vids, one that had better playback and less visibility than Youtube.For streaming videos... post to the Vidding LJ community dated Nov 25, 2006; WayBack Machine. On Dec 2, 2006, astolat, an influential LJ vidder referenced Laura Shapiro’s post about increasing vidding's visibility and announced she had opened up an imeem account and had posted her first vids.
That same day, Morgan Dawn, a VCR vidder who had transitioned to digital vidding, tested out imeem and posted that she was pleased with the smoothness of the playback. She then wrote a guide designed to ease the way for fan vidders who were interested in posting their vids to imeem. The guide “Imeem Vidding 101” focused on technical aspects (how to upload vids), organizational (how to tag fan vids so others can find them) and cautionary notes about the role imeem might play in this next phase of vidding.WayBack Machine link. She also created a vidding forum on iMeem and proposed a fandom specific tagging system to help fans find teach others vids.
She then, somewhat wryly concluded: 
Not everyone was on board. Some felt they were being maneuvered by peer pressure into areas where they were not comfortable:
And
They also felt that online streaming offered an interior viewing experience:
And
And
They were not alone in expressing her doubts about online streaming: 4 months after the LJ vidding community began using imeem, one puzzled vidder wrote:
And others struggled to understand just how to use this new streaming videos and how to incorporate it into a community that was traditionally visibility shy:
Still many vidders did test out the new platform and were pleased. As one vidder explained, streaming offered more options at little to no cost to the vidder:
And, because imeem was a relative young company, the influx of vidders did not go unnoticed. In fact, within days of astolat’s announcement, the developers at imeem helped fans troubleshoot video embedding problems on Livejournal.Dec 4, 2006 Support post to the iMeem Vidding forum: “Thank you for reporting this issue. We are currently looking into this problem. It looks like Live Journal has blocked all imeem content. We understand your concerns and hope this to only be a temporary issue." (iMeem Suuport post in the Vidding Meem forum now offline) 
In fact, within days of the imeem vidding forum being created, one of the new fan members received an invitation to enter a vidding contest. 
==2007-2009: A Rocky Relationship==
In her 2007 post-Vividcon convention report, Laura Shapiro noted: 
But the vidding-imeem relationship was not without its problems – even though it offered better streaming quality, its search engine was poor.iMeem Search Tips post in the vidding LJ community on 12-30-2006; WayBack machine link. Finding fanvids amongst the sea of professional music videos and porn was difficult and fans had to create their own tagging system. 
Legal difficulties soon distracted the company. In May 2007, imeem was sued by Warner Group.Alert: Imeem Targeted In Warner Brothers Suit post to the vidding LJ community dated May 16, 2007; Wayback machine link. In August 2007, they instituted an audio fingerprinting service that would allow only users to hear the music they uploaded if it matched a licensed song. Vidding: iMeem Vid Removal post to the vidding LJ community dated August 2, 2006; WayBack Machine link. It should be noted that Youtube was also experimenting with audio and video verification technology. Youtube: How Is Their 'New' Dispute Process Working? post to the vidding LJ community on Feb 24, 2009; WayBack Machine post. In Jan 2008, an imeem video that had been featured in the November 2007 issue of the New York MagazineThe Twenty (Intentionally) Funniest Web Videos of 2007. was removed after an unknown imeem user complained that the vid violated imeem’s terms of service. The video, Vogue by luminosity was set to a song by Madonna using footage from the gaudy historical epic “300”. The video had, gathered over 15,000 views within a few days of being uploaded to imeem.Email from luminosity to Morgan Dawn on April 26, 2014, quoted with permission.. Imeem support did not explain which of their many terms of service were involved, despite Lum’s requests, leaving the vidding community uncertain as to how to avoid takedown notices in the future. In response to the takedown, vidders began re-uploading Vogue to other platforms such as Stage6, YouTube and Collegehumour.com. Some of these links still work 6 years later, long after imeem went out of business.Viral Vidding: A Web 2.0, Consumer-Generated, Social Experiment post at luminosity's journal on Jan 23, 2008; WayBack Machine link.
During 2007 and 2008, imeem faced competition from other streaming services. Companies like divX (Stage 6) An evolution in streaming video post to the vidding LJ community dated June 7, 2007 and Stage6 (DivX Streaming) post to the vidding LJ community dated November 7, 2007; WayBack Machine link; WayBack Machine link. and Veoh Veoh: "For YouTube Graduates" post to the LJ vidding community dated Feb 13, 2007; WayBack Machine link. jumped into the streaming video business.
Still, vidders continued to use imeem, even in the face of takedowns – in this imeem was no better or worse than other streaming services. "I had a vid pulled back in November due to a complaint filed by another user" (imeem) dated March 6, 2009 and LFL HAS SMACKED DOWN YOUTUBE VIDDERS (Youtube) dated August 1, 2006; WayBack Machine; WayBack Machine. And there were other features that fans found useful. One of the more popular imeem features was the ability to create a vid “playlist” where you could select vids from various vidders and offer them us as single stream of recommendations.
==2009: imeem Closes==
By 2009, imeem began experiencing cash flow problems. iMeem May Be Struggling To Stay Afloat - Backup Your Work post to the vidding LJ community dated April 14, 2009; WayBack Machine. By June 25, 2009, imeem announced it was deleting all user uploaded photos and videos, giving users only a few days notice tor rescue their personal files. vchrusch, Looks like Imeem is probably no longer vidder friendly, posted to the Vidding LiveJournal community, 25 June 2009;WayBack machine link. 
Even though imeem was closing, two years after first venturing into fan vid streaming, the practice was there to stay. Fans posted about alternative streaming sites and the suggestion of self-hosting was once again mentioned. Tutorial: Streaming from your personal webhost on LJ post to the vidding LJ community dated Nov 26, 2008; WayBack machine link. Others reminded video editors that diversity was perhaps their best option in the ongoing battle against take-downs: 
On June 29, 2009, one day before imeem went “dark” for fan vidding, Morgan Dawn posted a snarky farewell:
==Impact Analysis==
Still, in spite of the snark, the fact remained that imeem did help entice a segment of the live action vidding community into online streaming. In turn, imeem, along with other events taking place in 2007-2009 time period, raised the awareness of the vidding community that they were part of a larger ongoing struggle that pitted corporate interests against fair use and transformative works. In the summer of 2006, shortly before the imeem migration began, Laura Shapiro pointed out:
Perhaps then, it was no coincidence that one month after the migration to imeem, Morgan Dawn and par avion began offering a “Meta Vidding” newsletter at veni-vidi-vids that focused, among other things developments in copyright law and the technological tools used to combat fair use and transformative works. The first Meta vidding newsletter was launched in . 
By May 2007, Astolat suggested that fans needed An Archive of Our Own, and the OTW was founded. Since then, many of the streaming websites used by fan vidders have come and gone. For example, in May 2010, less than one year after iMeem shuttered, Ning announced a change in its business model and Bam Video Vault, one of the alternative sites vidders had migrated to, decided to shut down. VidderKidder, the owner of another Ning network stepped in and negotiated with the original owners to turn over the site and it became Vidders Net. In 2014, Blip.tv pulled all fan content from its servers and Viddler ended free video hosting.
==The Move to imeem: Further Reading==
*Laura Shapiro, Vidding and Visibility: You Can’t Stop The Signal:Wayback machine link.
*astolat, vidding and imeem.comWayBack Machine link.
*cathexys in vidding, Linking to Imeem?.
==References==
Category:Vidding WebsitesCategory:Social NetworkingCategory:2022 Featured Articles