Pandora, the internet radio service of the “Music Genome Project,” has announced that it is discontinuing its service in the UK, effective January 15. Pandora lets users design their own streaming radio stations based on their musical preferences.

Pandora’s continued operations have been uncertain since mid-2007, when licensing body protests in North America and UK increased the company’s operating costs. In the US, Internet radio services are licensed under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Streaming music to other countries, on the other hand, has to be negotiated with the groups which represent the record labels, and the music publishers, on a country by country basis.

Beginning in May 2007, Pandora suspended operations outside the United States, except for in the UK. Pandora continued streaming music to Britain while trying to negotiate music licensing deals to keep the service open in that country.

Founder Tim Westergren said this week that the company cannot reach an agreement with music industry trade bodies over music licensing fees, adding that the licensing bodies’ rates “are far too high to allow ad-supported radio to operate” in the UK.

The company vows to “keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure” that would enable it to restart operations in the UK.

Social media network imeem and Warner Music Group today announced a strategic partnership that will make Warner’s library of music available to imeem users in North America for on-demand streaming using imeem‚Äôs free, ad-supported service.

imeem’s Web site lets users create, share and discover user-generated custom playlists, video channels, photo slideshows, and blogs with other members who share similar tastes in music, video, art and pop culture. With this partnership with Warner Music Group, imeem users can discover new music from WMG artists.

“This deal provides an opportunity to unleash the value of music on one of the world‚Äôs leading social networks by giving fans an environment where they can discover and share new music. It also opens the door for imeem and WMG to develop new strategies and products that will help introduce a more vibrant media marketplace to the social networking environment,” says WMG’s Alex Zubillaga.¬†¬†

“We are now able to offer our users an impressive level of free, interactive, and ad-supported access to an amazing catalog of both audio and video from a major record label,” said Dalton Caldwell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of imeem.

In connection with this partnership, WMG dismissed its claims against imeem relating to the lawsuit filed by WMG against imeem in May.

imeem today announced the launch of ad-supported music service that offers revenue share to artists when their music is streamed.

The service launches with three million tracks, including music from imeem’s record label partners Nettwerk, Beggars Group, Matador Records, Om Records, and XL Recordings, artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Barenaked Ladies, Public Enemy, M.I.A., Thom Yorke, Sarah McLachlan, Belle & Sebastian, and Thievery Corporation, and distributors including IODA, The Orchard, IRIS, INgrooves and Redeye Distribution.

Entry is open to any artist or content owner who would like to join, and there is no cost to music fans.

“We are excited to be a part of imeem’s ad-supported interactive music service,” said Brent Muhle, general manager, Nettwerk Music Group. “imeem allows Nettwerk to bring its artist and their music to a great community of people and music fans and now provides musicians a new source of revenue.”

imeem uses SNOCAP’s proprietary Digital Registry and content identification platform to give content owners, such as music labels and artists, the choice to make their music available for streaming by imeem users and earn income through an advertising revenue share. The imeem service automatically identifies uploaded content, determines if the content owner has permitted streaming on the imeem service, and then distributes a pro-rata share of the advertising revenue to the proper recipient. To participate in the imeem service, the rights holder must register content with SNOCAP by creating an account and uploading their tracks at www.SNOCAP.com.

“Now, today, everyone can get what they want; fans can listen and share music and know the artists and bands they love get fair compensation for their creative work, and artists can promote their music as aggressively as they like within an artist-friendly paid offering,” said Rusty Rueff, chief executive officer of SNOCAP. ”SNOCAP’s Digital Registry will power imeem’s unique, balanced and innovative ad-supported revenue sharing program to enable artists and labels to retain control over their music and reach a massive online base of new and existing fans, who in turn will promote the artists’ music. It doesn’t get much better than this for everyone.”