iLike Surpasses 30 Million Users, Unveils New Ad Platform for Concerts and Full-Song Playback Powered by Rhapsody

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iLike, the leading social music discovery service, now has more than 30 million registered users. To commemorate this significant milestone and reaffirm its commitment to empowering all stakeholders in the music ecosystem, iLike today unveiled a new ad platform for concert promoters. iLike also announced that full-length song playback via Rhapsody is now broadly available on iLike.com and will soon be available on iLike’s popular application on Facebook®. Additionally, the company announced a new initiative to enable music syndication via third-party developers.

“Since inception, iLike has always enabled other people to benefit from our reach”

“Since inception, iLike has always enabled other people to benefit from our reach,” said Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. “Historically, iLike has focused on serving fans, artists and labels. Today, we’re pleased to expand the iLike community by empowering two new groups: concert promoters and third-party [application/website] developers. We’re also delighted that the first phase of our Rhapsody relationship has been implemented within just weeks, delivering full-song playback to our users.”

Details of iLike’s new announcements follow:

New ad platform: Concert promoters, venue owners, booking agents and indie bands can now use iLike’s social, self-serve advertising tools to reach music fans across the top social networks. Key benefits include the ability to:
- Target music fans based on location and musical tastes rather than key words;
- Conveniently create multi-media ads, including music playback and social links, with just a few clicks of the mouse;
- Save time managing campaigns in multiple markets via auto-generated ads with self-populating concert data;
- Tap into potential “viral spread” of concert information via built-in social hooks that encourage fans to invite friends to concerts.
- Reach passionate music fans who are actively looking to discover live music events in their market;
- Transcend the flawed medium of print and radio advertising to reach music fans where they really spend their time – online;
- To learn more and get started, go to www.iLike.com/advertise
Developers will soon be able to conveniently add music to their websites via iLike. The new service, which will launch this quarter, will empower developers to add song playback (songs and playlists) to their websites or Facebook applications. iLike has successfully built and launched dominant music applications on three of the top 10 most visited websites in the world: Facebook, Orkut and hi5. With this initiative, popular iLike features will be available to any developer for use on his/her individual website, thereby expanding iLike’s footprint across the Web while enabling developers to enhance their services. iLike is now accepting early registration for developers who want to be included in the program. For more information, go to: www.iLike.com/developer
For music fans: Users of iLike.com can now enjoy the enhanced music experience of full-length song playback, giving iLike’s enormous audience a taste of the popular Rhapsody Unlimited subscription service. Full-song streaming is now available for free to iLike users until a monthly threshold of 25 plays is reached, at which time users can choose to sign up for a Rhapsody account or enjoy 30 second song samples. Full-length song playback will soon be available on iLike’s dominant music application on Facebook.
For artists and labels: iLike and Rhapsody are deploying a new model that will successfully monetize music consumption on the top social networks for labels and artists. Artists and labels will be paid royalties each time their music is played via Rhapsody’s existing agreements. This will be the first widespread implementation of a scalable model to monetize the enormous potential for music consumption across social networks. The service is now broadly available on iLike.com and will be launched soon on iLike’s Facebook application.

About iLike, inc

iLike is the Web's leading social music discovery service and the dominant music application on the Facebook®, Orkut, hi5 and Bebo platforms. With more than 30 million registered users, iLike helps people share music recommendations, playlists, and personalized concert alerts. The iLike Sidebar for iTunes and Windows Media Player suggests new music, creates automatic playlists, and connects people through music. iLike offers musicians and labels a convenient Artist Dashboard from which to reach fans and manage their presence across multiple channels: Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Bebo, iLike.com, Ask.com, Orkut, iLike Sidebar plugins for iTunes and Windows Media Player, and iLike’s iPhone application. By leveraging iLike's vast database of music lovers and their favorite artists, iLike helps artists communicate with fans and cultivate the viral spread of their music. iLike, inc also runs indie music site GarageBand.com.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. iTunes® is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. Windows Media Player® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.